Malte Zander bei Gärtnergasse, Wien

Malte Zander, I didn‘t read it – but I have a friend who told me it was fantastic., 2019, archival pigment print, 25,4 x 17 cm

Gärtnergasse

Ottakringer Straße 44, 1170 Wien
Österreich

KünstlerIn: Malte Zander

Titel: Torpor

Datum: 15. Juni 2019 – 30. September 2019

Fotografie: Courtesy the artist and Gärtnergasse, Vienna

Notiz: Eingeladen von Eugen Wist

Ausstellungstext:

apprehensively up at the sky. The moon was bright but partly muted behind a film of cloud, and its diffuse light gently illuminated the half-dozen figures seated on the grass. The effect was strange, and to any passer-by the group would appear as if expertly lit in a stage play, one set during the night time. 
Johann was gloomy, mumbling responses between sips of Jägermeister. But Daniel, kind and reasonable as always, seemed optimistic. Louisa dug her fingers in the sandy soil as she listened to Daniel’s measured words, the conditions of their task outlined in detail, or at least in as much detail as he could form about a scenario they knew almost nothing about. None of them had gone below the city before, Louisa included, and she wanted to believe in Daniel’s plan. If it did exist, she was just as curious as the others to see this mysterious cinema. But she also wanted to see what lay beneath the city she thought she knew so well. How could one know a place without having been inside, underneath? She pushed her fingers deeper into the soil as Daniel explained their timing. 
“The earliest sign of twilight would be the best time to leave–” 
“I don’t know, Daniel, about any of this” interrupted Johann, “it will probably end badly for us all.” 
Louisa was confused, and mildly irritated by her friend’s dismissive attitude. 
“I can’t understand you Johann. What are you so worried about?” 
Johann had leant back on his elbows and was kneading a flower between his fingers. Backlit by the moon, it was too dark to see the details of his face, but Louisa could imagine well enough his serious, blank expression fixed somewhere in the middle distance. 
“You don’t understand”
“I don’t”
“It could be very dangerous” 
Louisa laughed a small, incredulous laugh.
“There are risks of course, but there’s nothing dangerous about a 
movie theatre”
“And what is not dangerous about a dragon?” 
Daniel reached forward and touched Johann’s arm. “She doesn’t know about the dragon”
“She doesn’t know about the dragon?” “No” 
A thoughtful silence descended among the group at large. But Louisa had heard instead a punchline and an empty space carved for its appreciative response, and she rolled on her back and laughed, her sneaker-clad feet kicking the ground and scattering the tiny bottles of Jägermeister that lay in 


Text by Eleanor Woodhouse