Payer Gabriel + N 48° 11’ 47.038" O 16° 21’ 59.259"

About

PAYER GABRIEL (Micha Payer, born 1979 in Wolfsberg and Martin Gabriel, born 1976 in Linz) work between the two poles of arbitrary order and systematic contingency, which, in turn can be conceived as a system whose point of departure is the reflection of the world on a micro and macro scale. In this intellectual space meteorites become emblematic of an artistic strategy. Scientific theories state that comets made it possible for the building blocks of life to emerge on earth. For the artist the meteorite is the essence of the alien in the familiar and raises the provocative question whether man is composed of “star dust”.

Their new series of works "Apologie des Zufälligen" (Apology of Chance) has evolved in the last two years within the context of these reflections. The title refers to Odo Marquard who in his homonymous text defends the notion of contingency which philosophy prefers to neglect and suppress.

Large and medium-format drawings emerge from sheets in A4 and A5 format, with an ink-based priming in various colors, creating a grid for the various pictorial fragments. Only when viewed together does a motif become visible, one that is the fragment of a larger entity. Additions or substitutions of parts create further extensions, since the artists’ works are in a process of constant permutation. The sources of their creations are physical and biological facts, historical references and citations from art history.

PAYER GABRIEL’s show is enriched with pieces on loan from the collection of the Vienna Museum of Natural History, works by Andreas DUSCHA, Dona JALUFKA, KERNEL, Ralo MAYER, Valentin RUHRY and Björn SCHÜLKE. This way, further artistic associations and questions relating to the earth, utopias and desires, the latest technologies and science fiction become possible. All of these references are detached from the romanticism of moon travel and Sputniks.