Markus Schinwald

In Markus Schinwald’s artistic practice, a confluence of historical contexts and architecturally reactive impulses inform an expansive universe of exhibition formats. Though the diversity of Schinwald’s visual references is broad, a recurring theme in his scenographies is a preoccupation with the body. In installations and films, performers move as if propelled by gears or wires, and uncanny puppets, automatons, anthropomorphic sculptures, and furniture elements resembling body parts make it difficult to determine what is moving or feeling on its own. Schinwald plays with these ambiguities to explore how the artist and the viewer work in different ways to animate artworks, invigorating them with subjective influence by reading emotions into their expressions, interpreting their movements, and contributing their individual perspectives to their meaning. (Represented Austria during the 54th Venice Contemporary Art Biennale in 2011)