Judith Fegerl: on/

The exhibition on/ by Judith Fegerl symbiotically merges with the industrial hall. The Austrian artist has developed new sculptural, two-dimensional works and objects that treat space in a site-specific way—architecturally and historically. Fegerl works with the entire building, interweaving history and present. She hides nothing, lays everything bare. She builds functioning systems that use the potential and infrastructure of a place analytically and constructively, intervening in its substance.

For the first time, Fegerl combines energy-using works—such as the sculptures from the “moment” series, which has been ongoing since 2016, and the new installation “profound understanding” – with a photovoltaic system mounted on the façade of the space. Here her artistic work comes full circle in demonstrating the existential dependency of object and energy in a targeted and almost techno-poetic way.

The exploration of the possibilities of electrical energy as sculptural and imaging material provokes a reflection on the availability and handling of resources. Fegerl’s fascination with time-based, transformative processes of forces and materials opens up an experimental space. The linking of an aesthetic of the functional with the autonomy of art makes a contribution to the current debates on exhibition practices and their responsibilities and possibilities, but it is also a commentary on a general social attitude in our increasingly complex present. Focusing on energy in various forms, Fegerl operates on the central supply organ of our civilisation: “You can’t see it, you can’t hear it, and to a certain extent you can’t feel it either. Nevertheless, electrical energy is the basis of our modern, technologised life: progress and development, utility and luxury, but also conflicts over distribution, provision and, above all, environmental issues—energy is highly political stuff.” (Judith Fegerl)

Judith Fegerl was born in 1977 in Vienna, where she lives and works today. She graduated from the Visual Media Design and Digital Art programme at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna, studying with Karel Dudesek, Thomas Fürstner and Peter Weibel (diploma 2004). At the same time she also studied Art and New Media at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna with Peter Kogler and Birgit Jürgenssen (diploma 2006). In 2019, Fegerl received the Media Art Prize of the City of Vienna, and she was recently awarded the Dagmar Chobot Sculpture Prize 2022.

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About Kunstraum Dornbirn
Kunstraum Dornbirn was founded in 1987 as a non-profit association with the aim of presenting and communicating contemporary art. Since 2003, the exhibitions have found ideal conditions for showing large-scale installations in the historic assembly hall of the former Rüsch-Werke, a machine factory in Dornbirn’s Municipal Gardens. The quality of the architecture in its original, raw state offers space for the presentation of current trends in international art. We show established, internationally renowned artists and newer positions in three exhibitions every year.

The exhibition history of Kunstraum Dornbirn is marked by international artists such as Monka Sosnowska and Robert Kuśmirowski (2022), Tony Oursler (2021), Atelier Van Lishout and Claudia Comte (both 2020), Hans Op de Beek (2017), Nathalie Djurberg & Hans Berg (2016), Berlinde de Bruyckere (2015), Not Vital and Tue Greenford (both 2012), Jan Kopp (2010) and Mark Dion (2008), and Austrian artists such as Peter Sandbichler (2021), Bernd Oppl (2019), Thomas Feuerstein (2018) and Roman Signer (2008).