At CUBO: Pia Mayrwöger – HERE

HERE
 – Resonances of a Place

Opening: 24.08. 17:00 17:00

with an introduction by Tamina Schönböck

The exhibition features two early site-specific works by Pia Mayrwöger, created in 2016 and 2017 on the grounds of the Lindabrunn Symposium. In both interventions, the artist engaged intensively with the site’s spatial, landscape, and material conditions. Her interventions do not dominate the space, but rather explore it attentively, giving rise to striking connections between artistic practice and the surroundings.

In the form of a documentary presentation, the works are now returning to the place where they were created. The exhibition offers a chance to rediscover works that already reveal the unique sensitivity and consistency of Pia Mayrwöger’s artistic approach. At the same time, it highlights the Symposium grounds as a place that, for many years, has repeatedly served as a starting point for experimental artistic processes and shared experiences.

Pia Mayrwöger (b. 1986, Kefermarkt; d. 2025) studied Experimental Design at the University of Art and Design Linz. As a freelance artist, she explored the themes of labor, production processes, and the relationship between humans and machines. Her artistic practice encompassed temporary interventions in public spaces, object and spatial installations, as well as photography and video. By intervening in everyday objects, technical devices, and spaces, she altered their perception, function, and meaning.

CAT 302.4D*
 Intervention 2016, video, 14 h 21 min
Using a Caterpillar mini-excavator, Pia Mayrwöger digs a pit, from which she then frees herself. Barefoot and wearing an ankle-length red dress, she climbs into the excavator and starts it up. She loosens a patch of soil roughly the size of the machine’s footprint, piles the material behind the machine, and drives into the resulting depression. There, she turns the excavator around and repeats the process.

Step by step, the machine works its way deeper into the ground until the hydraulic arm reaches its maximum range of motion. The excavator’s technical capabilities determine the end point of the operation. Mayrwöger then reverses the process and digs himself and the machine out of the pit again.

In the video itself, the long duration and repetitive structure of the process become an integral part of the work.
(*) This work was created in 2016 as part of the “Somewhere to Disappear” project, a ten-day workshop organized by the Department of Experimental Design at the University of Art and Design Linz. Concept and direction: Leo Schatzl, in collaboration with Miriam Bajtala and Susi Jirkuff. Technical support: Kurt Weckel and Günter Miklenic.

WHITE SPACE*
Intervention 2017, photographic work
“White Space” was created through a temporary intervention in a small wooded area on the Symposion grounds. Pia Mayrwöger sprayed a selected area with lime, thereby temporarily altering its appearance. The white color clearly sets the area apart from its natural surroundings and creates a distinct, almost enclosed zone within the forest.

The intervention alters not so much the physical structure of the site as its perception. Familiar plants, ground features, and spatial boundaries appear rearranged within the white space and removed from their usual surroundings. The photographic work transforms this ephemeral state into an independent visual form.
(*) This work was created in 2017 as part of the “Loose Harbour” project, a summer program featuring invited artists and students from the University of Art and Design Linz. Concept and organization: Leo Schatzl. Technical support: Kurt Weckel and Günter Miklenic.

Exhibition Concept and Design: Leo Schatzl