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JAM­MERTHAL

neon sign, barbed wire fence, con­crete bases, dimen­sions vari­able
2015

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The baroque divi­sion of the world into earth­ly suf­fer­ing and oth­er­world­ly promis­es of redemp­tion is gain­ing renewed rel­e­vance in our present time. Numer­ous par­adis­es are longed for as rewards from a god after death, forcibly erect­ed in the midst of this world or pre­sumed to be on West­ern islands of pros­per­i­ty that lie beyond seas and are care­ful­ly shield­ed from the val­leys of mis­ery behind her­met­ic bor­ders. Not infre­quent­ly, barbed wire fences sep­a­rate the par­adis­es from the val­leys of tears. In a sub­tle blend of ratio­nal­i­ty and sadism, barbed wire embod­ies the simul­ta­ne­ous­ly effi­cient and styl­ized instru­ment of an ancient human prac­tice: the art of divi­sion, with­out which no par­adis­es could be sep­a­rat­ed from the rest of the world.

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JAM­MERTHAL, neon sculp­ture, 2015
Michael Hirschbichler, JAMMERTHAL, exhibition view Villa Massimo Rome, 2015
JAM­MERTHAL, exhi­bi­tion view, Vil­la Mas­si­mo, Rome, 2015
Michael Hirschbichler, JAMMERTHAL, exhibition view Martin-Gropius-Bau Berlin, 2016
JAM­MERTHAL, exhi­bi­tion view, Mar­tin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin, 2016
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