Lavinia, 2007
oil on canvas
Meron, 2008
oil on canvas
1st Part Conditional, 2004, 35 mm film converted to dvd, 3 minutes
At the Migros Museum Markus Schinwald's first solo show on a large scale takes full advantage of the museum's generous space in the Löwenbrauareal. The Austrian's works have been seen in numerous exhibitions including 'The World As A Stage' at Tate Modern, Manifesta 5 and the Berlin Biennale in 2006, but this installation demonstrates his dexterity in combining disparate media to create a cohesive and spellbinding exhibition that posits charged questions about relationships between mind, body, space and society.
The two large spaces of the Migros Museum are sparingly hung, the first divided by architectural divisions, pillars and posts running across the gallery at different heights - some at eye level, some benches and others hurdles. This Trager and Leger strategy, which Schinwald has borrowed from scenographer and artist Friedrich Kiesler, means the audience's observation of the other elements is in effect orchestrated by outside controls, and we are unwittingly cast in Schinwald's theatre. The exhibition consists of two major film works, a series of sculptures using limbs of furniture, two animated dummies, paintings and a cast of an elongated pregnant torso, of which initially the films dominate, their soundtracks flooding the space.
Ten In Love projected large marks the end of the first space. The film portrays a series of characters whose actions appear to be governed by foreign impulses, the restrictions of their garments and the obstacles they negotiate. While the mechanical clothing elements of the work have much in common with the films of Hussein Chalayan, the abiding impression is of the ongoing cadence of embraces, separations and pauses. The found dialogue that plays over these scenes offers a sometimes gentle narrative ("from soft to soft a love divided") but underscores the relentless continual movement of the societal theatre, whether harmonic or disharmonic as the film loops without distinguishable start or conclusion.
The inexorable progress of a pendulum reoccurs in the mannequin sculptures, slightly ghastly figures, one of which sways on a swing in half-light, staring into the distance, while another with a void where its torso should be kicks its heel, an eternally irritable tick. Both faces are sallow and aged, but condemned to continue their actions. The second film, 1st Part Conditional, also looping, follows two figures whose eyes meet to catalyse action; a middle-aged man, seated and still, connects with a younger woman in an ill-fitting uniform. She then moves into action as if possessed, her limbs at first controlled, then attacked by frailty, her limbs collapsing or rebelling, until she flees.
Again one can draw a valid connection between the actor's disobedient limbs and the splayed limbs of the furniture sculptures, as one can between the clothing in Ten in Love and the alien elements Schinwald has inserted into the 19th century paintings which line the walls. With this manipulation and repetition of elements the artist echoes the atmosphere of the films and creates a meditative, hypnotic whole, which lulls the viewer into some comfort in spite of the aggressive gestures of his works. With a light hand he has directed a complex drama where embraces are close to arm locks, furnishings support or manipulate and control vacillates between protection and abuse.
Aoife Rosenmeyer
Markus Schinwald
Until 18 May 2008
Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst
Zürich
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Aoife Rosenmeyer is based in Zürich after several years as a curator with Artwise in London. In Switzerland she is doing all manner of work art related and contributing to publications including Art World Magazine.
