The Kunsthaus Bregenz show is Pascale Marthine Tayou’s first large-scale solo exhibition in Austria.

What does it mean when Pascale Marthine Tayou titles his Kunsthaus Bregenz exhibition I love you!? Is he referring to the group exhibition Love is Colder than Capital that took place at the same venue almost exactly a year ago, and where his huge rotating sphere Empty Gift filled with more than 1,000 empty but elaborately wrapped gifts was a favorite amongst the public?

Or is it a declaration of love addressed to the institution? The emotional exuberance the title expresses is conveyed by his solo exhibition especially conceived for Kunsthaus Bregenz, with its profuse and lavish presentation uniting diverse media from drawings and objects to large-scale spatial installations. This overflowing show of new works on three floors of the Kunsthaus creates the impression of a gesamtkunstwerk, with individual exhibits setting up an intensive dialogue, not just with each other, but with visitors as well. His installations are not confined to the three floors, but also take over the stairways like living organisms. Here, in addition to a favela consisting of several hundred bird cages, are wooden stakes made of sharpened tree trunks and narrower, painted versions that call to mind Mikado sticks.
In cooperation with the vorarlberg museum the Kunsthaus is presenting a sculpture reminiscent of Constantin Brancusi’s The Endless Column in the 20-meter high foyer of the vorarlberg museum. Unlike Brancusi’s column of 1937|38, which was made of iron, a material typically used for sculptures, Tayou creates his version from simple cooking pots, incorporating everyday objects in art in his characteristically humorous way.

As he often does, Pascale Marthine Tayou will be using numerous people of different ages and from a range of social and professional backgrounds to help him realize his works in Bregenz. This will include a cooperation with the Vorarlberger Kraftwerke AG, whose trainees are a part of the installation team. Tayou will also be inviting other young people, school children, and adults to help tell a love story as varied as the actors taking part in it. The procedure illustrates Tayou’s distrust of a heroic image of the artist that sees the author as a detached, aloof figure, as well as revealing his genuine interest in other people. The title of his Bregenz exhibition could also be interpreted in such a manner.

The exhibition opens on Friday 24 January 2014, from 6 to 8pm. 

Pascale Marthine Tayou’s lecture will be held on Saturday 25 January 2014 at 12am.

www.kunsthaus-bregenz.at