Heimo Zobernig studied in Vienna, where he has been tutoring in sculpture since 2000. He rose to international prominence in the 1990s, having participated in several editions of the Venice Biennale and Documenta. In his ‘Klasse Zobernig’, he works with students and young artists on a ‘Gesamtkonzept’ [complete concept]. Zobernig constantly explores the potential relationships between form and content, thereby creating an implicit sense of doubt in his oeuvre. Nothing can be certain when the experience of art is dependent upon (the position of) the viewer. Zobernig’s work encompasses sculpture, painting, performance, installation, film and video. In addition, he frequently alludes to theatre and architecture: for example, he intervenes in almost invisible elements in exhibition halls, such as plinths and pedestals.
Zobernig started his career with small paintings and black lacquered cardboard objects, as a reflection on neo-expressionism and the utopian formal austerity of modernism. He employs simple methods such as scale models and prototypes to make visible the historical stratification of his works. Since the early 1980s, Zobernig has been exploring the possibilities of sculpture in geometric objects and reliefs, comprised of cubes, corners, columns, plinths, mobile walls and racks. These are fashioned from unpretentious materials such as chipboard, synthetic resin, emulsion paint, fluorescent tubes and other everyday building materials. Their banality is enhanced by the standardised aesthetic of Zoberning’s work, which balances between everyday object and minimalist sculpture, between cogency and functionality.
Zobernig consistently names his works ‘Ohne Titel’ [‘Untitled’]. His formal language resembles the minimalism of Donald Judd, Sol LeWitt and Robert Morris, but ironically breaks with the canon of fetishism and noble materials. The semi-amateurish appearance of his videos and films, in which he often appears naked in situations ranging from the strange to the downright embarrassing, disrupts our pattern of expectation. Yet the physical deployment of his body is also reminiscent of work by video pioneers such as Bruce Nauman and Vito Acconci. The common thread running through Zobernig’s multiform oeuvre is fundamental research into the presentation of art and its frame of reference. The divisions of roles are constantly shaken up and raise open questions. From an art historical perspective, the consistent creation of a complex friction – between the function of artworks, exhibition scenography and the viewer – situates Zobernig within post-conceptualism.
