Portable Paradises
June – December 2024
Ausgabe
Porzellangasse1/Kiosk
1090 Vienna
Where Are My Keys – WrMK is pleased to present, Portable Paradises, an ephemeral and site-specific art project that will take place at Ausgabe, in Porzellangasse 1, in Vienna’s 9th district.
With Portable Paradises, WrMK unlocks the potential of one of the most visible and yet often underestimated places of urban architecture: the kiosk. Portable Paradises consists of six iterations, each inviting an artist or group of artists to realise an intervention on the kiosk itself.
The title of the series – Portable Paradises – is taken from a review of historical guidebooks from the turn of the 20th century by Jonathan Keates, a small booklet describing the significance of apparently obsolete historical travel guidebooks as testimonies of any given place at a specific point in time. Much like these historic guidebooks, kiosks can be read as historiographic findings of culture and society – informal yet deeply embedded in the city’s social fabric and continuously evolving to reflect the changing tastes and needs of the city's residents and visitors.
Taken over by owner and chef Luca Tamussino in 2021, the Ausgabe – a former newspapers kiosk – was transformed into a gastronomic and cultural project following a thorough conceptual and structural restoration.
A number of local and international artists is invited to encounter and revisit the historical site of the kiosk in a specific contemporary setting and localisation – the Ausgabe, in Vienna’s 9th district. Amongst them Katarina Spielmann, Gabriele Edlbauer & Julia S. Goodman, Clare Kenny, Ernst Lima, Gelitin, and Claire Fontaine.
June – December 2024
Ausgabe
Porzellangasse1/Kiosk
1090 Vienna
Where Are My Keys – WrMK is pleased to present, Portable Paradises, an ephemeral and site-specific art project that will take place at Ausgabe, in Porzellangasse 1, in Vienna’s 9th district.
With Portable Paradises, WrMK unlocks the potential of one of the most visible and yet often underestimated places of urban architecture: the kiosk. Portable Paradises consists of six iterations, each inviting an artist or group of artists to realise an intervention on the kiosk itself.
The title of the series – Portable Paradises – is taken from a review of historical guidebooks from the turn of the 20th century by Jonathan Keates, a small booklet describing the significance of apparently obsolete historical travel guidebooks as testimonies of any given place at a specific point in time. Much like these historic guidebooks, kiosks can be read as historiographic findings of culture and society – informal yet deeply embedded in the city’s social fabric and continuously evolving to reflect the changing tastes and needs of the city's residents and visitors.
Taken over by owner and chef Luca Tamussino in 2021, the Ausgabe – a former newspapers kiosk – was transformed into a gastronomic and cultural project following a thorough conceptual and structural restoration.
A number of local and international artists is invited to encounter and revisit the historical site of the kiosk in a specific contemporary setting and localisation – the Ausgabe, in Vienna’s 9th district. Amongst them Katarina Spielmann, Gabriele Edlbauer & Julia S. Goodman, Clare Kenny, Ernst Lima, Gelitin, and Claire Fontaine.
Portable Paradises – VI
Gelatin
INSTABIL 2024
29 November, 2024 – 10 January, 2025
Where Are My Keys – WrMK is pleased to announce the sixth episode of Portable Paradises at Ausgabe presenting a not yet exhibited series of works by Gelatin: four photographs titled Microsculptures (2000/2024).
For the final episode of the site-specific art project, Gelatin is taking us to Down Under and back in time: In 2000 Ali, Florian, Tobias, and Wolfgang shot each other bottomless in Australia, depicting their Microsculptures standing lost in sceneries.
It is probably one of the most canonical subjects in painting, originated in Romanticism at the end of the 18th century: a seldom man gazing out into the wild nature. He, who is the one who represents mankind on the verge of enlightenment and industrialization carries hope but also doubt for the unknown future. Perhaps less emphasized, however, is the idea of the emotional man who carries nostalgia, worry and fear despite being depicted as the hard, confident, and strong. Yes, he too, can be soft, emotional, and irrational. The upbuilt image collapses.
In the field of sculpture this notion of Romanticism was less articulated but would result in an ambiguous handling of material: the concrete solid of the stone is being worked so rigorously that it loses its adherent characteristics and unveils a surprising and unexpected softness, grace, and an apparent immateriality. When it comes to perception nothing is set in stone; the figure is fleeting rather than lasting. The parti pris cascades. Stripped from hull and presumptions what stands before us are not simply four men with erected penises. The artists are alone in an undefined place, the time has passed; upswing is coming down and yet again we are gazing into uncertainty. Gelatin’s Microsculptures have not consolidated but are (still) INSTABIL in 2024. Could these images capture the very moment when the most patriarchal symbol of power is about to sag?
After its celebration in Antiquity, the phallic symbol was largely erased from art history during the Middle Ages and beyond. Its reintroduction in Modernity is marked not simply by reverence but by discomfort—depicted not anymore as an icon of potency, but as a site of inner conflict and a trigger for confronting social taboos.
As much as they are hard, they are soft, young and old, concerning and liberating, serious and most definitely humorous. One might wonder if it is a Freudian slip to bring wieners to a Würstelstand that does not sell sausages. Very gelatinesque!
Gelatin
INSTABIL 2024
29 November, 2024 – 10 January, 2025
Where Are My Keys – WrMK is pleased to announce the sixth episode of Portable Paradises at Ausgabe presenting a not yet exhibited series of works by Gelatin: four photographs titled Microsculptures (2000/2024).
For the final episode of the site-specific art project, Gelatin is taking us to Down Under and back in time: In 2000 Ali, Florian, Tobias, and Wolfgang shot each other bottomless in Australia, depicting their Microsculptures standing lost in sceneries.
It is probably one of the most canonical subjects in painting, originated in Romanticism at the end of the 18th century: a seldom man gazing out into the wild nature. He, who is the one who represents mankind on the verge of enlightenment and industrialization carries hope but also doubt for the unknown future. Perhaps less emphasized, however, is the idea of the emotional man who carries nostalgia, worry and fear despite being depicted as the hard, confident, and strong. Yes, he too, can be soft, emotional, and irrational. The upbuilt image collapses.
In the field of sculpture this notion of Romanticism was less articulated but would result in an ambiguous handling of material: the concrete solid of the stone is being worked so rigorously that it loses its adherent characteristics and unveils a surprising and unexpected softness, grace, and an apparent immateriality. When it comes to perception nothing is set in stone; the figure is fleeting rather than lasting. The parti pris cascades. Stripped from hull and presumptions what stands before us are not simply four men with erected penises. The artists are alone in an undefined place, the time has passed; upswing is coming down and yet again we are gazing into uncertainty. Gelatin’s Microsculptures have not consolidated but are (still) INSTABIL in 2024. Could these images capture the very moment when the most patriarchal symbol of power is about to sag?
After its celebration in Antiquity, the phallic symbol was largely erased from art history during the Middle Ages and beyond. Its reintroduction in Modernity is marked not simply by reverence but by discomfort—depicted not anymore as an icon of potency, but as a site of inner conflict and a trigger for confronting social taboos.
As much as they are hard, they are soft, young and old, concerning and liberating, serious and most definitely humorous. One might wonder if it is a Freudian slip to bring wieners to a Würstelstand that does not sell sausages. Very gelatinesque!
Portable Paradises – V
Claire Fontaine
SILENCED
October 25 – November 22, 2024
Where Are My Keys – WrMK is pleased to open Claire Fontaine’s SILENCED, the fifth chapter of Portable Paradises, a site-specific art project taking place at Ausgabe, a historic kiosk located in Vienna’s 9th district.
Claire Fontaine is an artist duo established in 2004 by James Thornhill and Fulvia Carnevale, who operate under the guise of a single "readymade artist." Claire Fontaine challenges conventional notions of artistic authorship and the role of the artist in a commodified, capitalist society. Their name, borrowed from a French brand of school supplies, symbolizes the artist as a blank slate or "found object," ready to be filled or repurposed. Deeply influenced by radical political thought, Claire Fontaine's work critiques issues of labor, identity, alienation, and power structures. Through a diverse range of media, the duo interrogates the nature of contemporary art and its entanglement with consumer culture and social inequalities. For Ausgabe, Claire Fontaine will present the installation SILENCED, composed by two recent works, Can the subaltern speak? brickbat, 2024, and L'homme mort, 2024, which have been adapted to respond to the kiosk’s architecture.
Claire Fontaine
SILENCED
October 25 – November 22, 2024
Where Are My Keys – WrMK is pleased to open Claire Fontaine’s SILENCED, the fifth chapter of Portable Paradises, a site-specific art project taking place at Ausgabe, a historic kiosk located in Vienna’s 9th district.
Claire Fontaine is an artist duo established in 2004 by James Thornhill and Fulvia Carnevale, who operate under the guise of a single "readymade artist." Claire Fontaine challenges conventional notions of artistic authorship and the role of the artist in a commodified, capitalist society. Their name, borrowed from a French brand of school supplies, symbolizes the artist as a blank slate or "found object," ready to be filled or repurposed. Deeply influenced by radical political thought, Claire Fontaine's work critiques issues of labor, identity, alienation, and power structures. Through a diverse range of media, the duo interrogates the nature of contemporary art and its entanglement with consumer culture and social inequalities. For Ausgabe, Claire Fontaine will present the installation SILENCED, composed by two recent works, Can the subaltern speak? brickbat, 2024, and L'homme mort, 2024, which have been adapted to respond to the kiosk’s architecture.
Portable Paradises – IV
Ernst Lima
THE NOTCH
September 21 – October 16, 2024
Where Are My Keys – WrMK is pleased to open Ernst Lima’s THE NOTCH, the fourth chapter of Portable Paradises, a site-specific art project taking place at Ausgabe, a historic kiosk located in Vienna’s 9th district.
Ernst Lima is an artist and musician who lives and works in Vienna, where she graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in 2021. She works with a variety of media, including various printing techniques, photography, performance, and sound installations in multi-layered collages, always focusing on the themes of resonance and sensation. By juxtaposing analogue and digital working methods, she creates connections between media: the fluid visual representations of the human body are expanded into music and sound installations that explore resonance and alienation, reality, and fiction.
→ Please find more information and an artist statement by Ernst Lima in the Press Release.
Ernst Lima
THE NOTCH
September 21 – October 16, 2024
Where Are My Keys – WrMK is pleased to open Ernst Lima’s THE NOTCH, the fourth chapter of Portable Paradises, a site-specific art project taking place at Ausgabe, a historic kiosk located in Vienna’s 9th district.
Ernst Lima is an artist and musician who lives and works in Vienna, where she graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in 2021. She works with a variety of media, including various printing techniques, photography, performance, and sound installations in multi-layered collages, always focusing on the themes of resonance and sensation. By juxtaposing analogue and digital working methods, she creates connections between media: the fluid visual representations of the human body are expanded into music and sound installations that explore resonance and alienation, reality, and fiction.
→ Please find more information and an artist statement by Ernst Lima in the Press Release.
Portable Paradises – III
Clare Kenny
Hide nor Hair
August 24 – September 18, 2024
Where Are My Keys – WrMK is pleased to open the third chapter of Portable Paradises, a sitespecific art project taking place at Ausgabe, a historic kiosk located in Vienna’s 9th district. Clare Kenny, a Swiss-based British artist, is invited to intervene with the architectonical structure and its ambiguous notions as a private place in public space that has been there for some hundred years, often overlooked yet always present and hence also an ideal place for observation while hiding behind the curtains.
Clare Kenny works across different media and draws on forms and materials of everyday use, which she rearranges in often surprising and unconventional ways as installative settings. In this way, she creates alternative spaces and enables new perspectives on existing places. Adding a thoughtful yet humorous examination of language, common proverbs and double speak she underlines the need to always read between the lines and take a second look.
The saying “Hide nor Hair” means not having seen someone for a while and with that Kenny welcomes you back after a short summer break. However, Kenny more specifically and deliberately plays with the two-fold meaning of the word “hide” – synonym for both the noun “skin” as well as for the act of concealing. The kiosk – historically a place of many concerns itself, keeping its architectonical skin while veiling what’s behind – plays into this game of deception. The verb “hide” yet again has two-sides to it: while it refers to concealing oneself from view it also allows viewing others from a space of concealment.
For Ausgabe, Clare Kenny has produced new site-specific works that play with the inadequacy of simple readings and add some seemingly textile softness to the hard steel structure.
Clare Kenny
Hide nor Hair
August 24 – September 18, 2024
Where Are My Keys – WrMK is pleased to open the third chapter of Portable Paradises, a sitespecific art project taking place at Ausgabe, a historic kiosk located in Vienna’s 9th district. Clare Kenny, a Swiss-based British artist, is invited to intervene with the architectonical structure and its ambiguous notions as a private place in public space that has been there for some hundred years, often overlooked yet always present and hence also an ideal place for observation while hiding behind the curtains.
Clare Kenny works across different media and draws on forms and materials of everyday use, which she rearranges in often surprising and unconventional ways as installative settings. In this way, she creates alternative spaces and enables new perspectives on existing places. Adding a thoughtful yet humorous examination of language, common proverbs and double speak she underlines the need to always read between the lines and take a second look.
The saying “Hide nor Hair” means not having seen someone for a while and with that Kenny welcomes you back after a short summer break. However, Kenny more specifically and deliberately plays with the two-fold meaning of the word “hide” – synonym for both the noun “skin” as well as for the act of concealing. The kiosk – historically a place of many concerns itself, keeping its architectonical skin while veiling what’s behind – plays into this game of deception. The verb “hide” yet again has two-sides to it: while it refers to concealing oneself from view it also allows viewing others from a space of concealment.
For Ausgabe, Clare Kenny has produced new site-specific works that play with the inadequacy of simple readings and add some seemingly textile softness to the hard steel structure.
Portable Paradises – II
Gabriele Edlbauer, Julia S. Goodman
If You Can’t Say It with Words, Say It with Chicken
July 2 – August 18, 2024
Where Are My Keys – WrMK is pleased to present the second chapter of Portable Paradises at Ausgabe. Austrian-based artists Gabriele Edlbauer and Julia S. Goodman are invited to interact with the structure of the kiosk itself, presenting a new collaborative project.
Edlbauer's sculptural work is often characterized by ‘bad humor’ and an exploration into the logic of the absurd, frequently challenging social and political assumptions and blurring the boundaries between the artificial and the organic. Goodman’s paintings and installations are deeply rooted in personal and collective histories, exploring how memory and identity are intertwined with the physical and cultural landscape. Together, Edlbauer’s and Goodman’s collaborative works celebrate the messiness of narratives, embrace emotional ambiguities, empathize with material polyphonies, and baffle with culinary delusions.
At Ausgabe, the artists will present two specially made window displays inspired by their most recent collaboration, the emotionally loaded cookbook If You Can’t Say It with Words, Say It with Chicken. For it, Edlbauer and Goodman not only created the recipes but also designed the props, sculptures, and tableware, adding an extremely appealing and multifaceted aspect to the whole project. If You Can’t Say It with Words, Say It with Chicken is an exquisite artist-cookbook filled with recipes meant to aid the reader and home cook in their quest to address difficult-to-express emotions.
Gabriele Edlbauer, Julia S. Goodman
If You Can’t Say It with Words, Say It with Chicken
July 2 – August 18, 2024
Where Are My Keys – WrMK is pleased to present the second chapter of Portable Paradises at Ausgabe. Austrian-based artists Gabriele Edlbauer and Julia S. Goodman are invited to interact with the structure of the kiosk itself, presenting a new collaborative project.
Edlbauer's sculptural work is often characterized by ‘bad humor’ and an exploration into the logic of the absurd, frequently challenging social and political assumptions and blurring the boundaries between the artificial and the organic. Goodman’s paintings and installations are deeply rooted in personal and collective histories, exploring how memory and identity are intertwined with the physical and cultural landscape. Together, Edlbauer’s and Goodman’s collaborative works celebrate the messiness of narratives, embrace emotional ambiguities, empathize with material polyphonies, and baffle with culinary delusions.
At Ausgabe, the artists will present two specially made window displays inspired by their most recent collaboration, the emotionally loaded cookbook If You Can’t Say It with Words, Say It with Chicken. For it, Edlbauer and Goodman not only created the recipes but also designed the props, sculptures, and tableware, adding an extremely appealing and multifaceted aspect to the whole project. If You Can’t Say It with Words, Say It with Chicken is an exquisite artist-cookbook filled with recipes meant to aid the reader and home cook in their quest to address difficult-to-express emotions.
Portable Paradises – I
Katarina Spielmann
Bon Bon
June 8 – 30, 2024
Where Are My Keys – WrMK begins the series of interventions titled Portable Paradises at Ausgabe with the Vienna based painter Katarina Spielmann. The artist is most known for her large-scale narrational paintings that often invite the viewer to visit imaginary places. The painter, like a storyteller, offers us windows to look onto other worlds, lives, and realities. For the first chapter of Portable Paradises, Spielmann will share with the audience a sweet treat, showing some of her works from the ongoing series Bon Bon, small-scale works that often function as sketches for the artist, while at the same time also stand as independent art works. Playful yet bond to formal rules, each Bon Bon lays the groundwork for several ways of composition, colour rhythmic and arrangement that will define Spielmann’s future work.
“Dormant things awaken; motion is detected in the geological structures accrued in small relief works. Such autonomous studies are made with troweled plaster and thin washes of colour accrued into sedimentations of a subdued palette.” Max Henry, writer and artist. The Bon Bons let us see the path to somewhere new, they are ideas and thoughts that carry us to unseen places or specific outcomes envisioned but unconfirmed. They emphasise possibilities and show different horizons outside the window frame.
Katarina Spielmann
Bon Bon
June 8 – 30, 2024
Where Are My Keys – WrMK begins the series of interventions titled Portable Paradises at Ausgabe with the Vienna based painter Katarina Spielmann. The artist is most known for her large-scale narrational paintings that often invite the viewer to visit imaginary places. The painter, like a storyteller, offers us windows to look onto other worlds, lives, and realities. For the first chapter of Portable Paradises, Spielmann will share with the audience a sweet treat, showing some of her works from the ongoing series Bon Bon, small-scale works that often function as sketches for the artist, while at the same time also stand as independent art works. Playful yet bond to formal rules, each Bon Bon lays the groundwork for several ways of composition, colour rhythmic and arrangement that will define Spielmann’s future work.
“Dormant things awaken; motion is detected in the geological structures accrued in small relief works. Such autonomous studies are made with troweled plaster and thin washes of colour accrued into sedimentations of a subdued palette.” Max Henry, writer and artist. The Bon Bons let us see the path to somewhere new, they are ideas and thoughts that carry us to unseen places or specific outcomes envisioned but unconfirmed. They emphasise possibilities and show different horizons outside the window frame.
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