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Grazer Kunstverein moves to a bathroom
Anna Paul Meeting point at platform below Hilmteichschlössel at Hilmteich 3.7.2020, 3pm (Mariatrost)  Grazer Kunstverein becomes multiple bathrooms performed in a bathing situation. Anna Paul is an artist who is challenging the historical narrative of the bath. Following on from a series of performative sculptures and interventions she produced around the idea of public bathing, Paul asks what would happen if a public institution like Grazer Kunstverein became multiple private bathrooms in public space? Located in the district of Mariatrost, at the picturesque site of Hilmteich (an urban lake and surrounding parkland) Paul will work with participants to install and configure an outdoor version of their own domestic and personal hygiene facilities, using a series of her plumbed sculptural works. As an artist, Anna Paul has repeatedly dealt with bathing culture and the cultural heritage of bathing, its social aspects, history and development. In her preoccupation with bathing culture, Paul has determined that - until the private bathroom was established - bathing was a community-building ritual. Paul's sculptural works create participatory situations with which she negotiates everyday rituals and the relationship between people and their bathing routines. The ordinary actions of bathing, washing and grooming, the choreography of personal care are re-enacted and re-created, at a time when distance, personal space, and hygiene are at the centre of thinking around how people inhabite, use and navigate public space. Anna Paul is a visual artist born in 1987 in Carinthia. Paul’s sculptural works create participatory situations with which she negotiates everyday rituals and the relationship between society and its biproducts. She studied at the University of Applied Arts, Vienna. Paul’s research-based approach and architectural background inform her practice. In her work, she builds sculptural participatory environments that negotiate everyday rituals and the relationship between society and its products. Paul lives and works between Carinthia and Vienna. |