Olaf MetzelFrom the TV to the Fridge

With his group of aluminium works, Olaf Metzel has not only brought the theme of the relief back into current debates in a surprising and masterly manner, he also deliberately ties in with his own earlier works, in which he had already spelled out this particular art-historical genre. The present volume traces this arc in highly vivid fashion, above all thanks to materials and texts by the artist published here for the first time. It begins with the well-known work “Türkenwohnung Abstand 12.000,– DM VB,” for which in 1982 in Berlin the artist advertised the letting of a flat in which he had previously “hacked into the walls” himself, leaving a swastika in the central room. Equally unforgotten, and still good for public outrage to this day, is the sculpture leaned against the wall of the Württembergischer Kunstverein in Stuttgart in 1984, a funeral wreath of concrete above which the roughly brushed word Stammheim appears. And finally, with his most recent aluminium works, Olaf Metzel brings before our eyes something like the social relief of American reality.

Exhibition:
Kunstraum Innsbruck, 6/2 – 28/3/2015