Maria Temnitschka

Lost in Time

Opening: Thursday, October 16th 2012, 7 PM
Exhibition: October 17th – November 17th 2012

Austrian artist Maria Temnitschka first dealt with decaying industrial architecture in her painting series “Rost” in 2007/2008. Since then, she has taken an interest in spaces situated at the edge of cities, bridges and concrete buildings. Now the painter returns to her – as she herself calls it – "life’s subject": degrading architecture.

In her present work, she doesn’t exclusively show industrial structures. The viewer will find scenes like the Sophiensäle, desolate since the fire of 2001, or the stand of the betting office at the Krieau in Vienna. All these buildings that Temnitschka explores have a common feature: They have been used intensely, and even thought their use has long been past, it is still perceptible. One can feel the echo of stomping machines, one can picture the crowds of people at the Sunday horse races, one can imagine the garish evening party at the Sophiensäle.

These architectures speak of their purposes, a slowly dying testimony. Stripped of their function, they step out of the fabric of time and transgress into a state of waiting for the end that is to come. In these spaces, time manifests in all its relativity, the deadlock is deceptive. The material’s decay may be subject to different chronological laws, but it wears on inexorably.

Maria Temnitschka visits her objects as often as possible, registers the smallest changes and documents them. She takes note of every new graffiti, every additional shattered window, every new layer of pigeon droppings or dismounted metal bar.
Signs of life in a slow process of decay, registered without bitterness or depression.