Museion, Bolzano’s Museum for Modern and Contemporary Art – (IT)

Raphael Pohl uses various found and borrowed objects from domestic, commercial, or industrial contexts to create spatial choreographies.

At the Museion, two conventional turnstiles, temporarily stripped of their function, and two aluminum molds for ice slushies borrowed by Pohl from a Vienna kiosk enter into a silent dialogue of material language. What connects these objects with the daily routine of a Georgian baker, who is filmed making thirty-six loaves of bread in thirteen minutes? Set against an opulent LED wall commonly associated with the world of urban advertising, these pieces immediately raise questions regarding the attention economy: How much value and importance is attached, for example, to the everyday practice of a baker in the streets of Batumi, who continually puts out fresh flatbread in the window of his kiosk for just-in-time pickup by his customers? Not much is said in the film, but the few conversations that do occur are repeated.

Doublings or pairings that change location appear on several levels in Pohl‘s installation, which was guided by ideas around absence, imitation, and substitution. The artist usually bases his multimedia sculptural arrangements on keywords or poems, fragments of which flash onto the screen here as subtitles in the video. Like a rebus, Pohl‘s installation prompts us to reflect on the different relationships between places, generations, and economies and on what unites, separates, and reunites the simplest of small businesses with international consumer and trade centers.

yet lonely hue I.II, 2024
one peppercorn, one flashlight
70 x 80 x 41

unearthed forgotten earrings, 2024
two turnstiles without rotating stars, two plastic lids, objects on loan from gotschlich karl gmbh
101 x 101 x 42

installation view – museion, 2024

yet lonely hue I.I, 2024
one slushy container cast in aluminum
70 x 80 x 41 cm

yet lonely hue I.II, 2023
borrowed plastic slushy container, countless peppercorns
various dimensions

chapter – 1/4

(ch.1) – in their empty pool, we sorted the leaves togheter.
(ch.2) – we hear the fountain trough the samll window, next o us a blind mirror.
(ch.3) – the ice that grows in the garden along the wall, covers the day after tomorrow.
(ch.4) – we let them sit, at the place where we sat.

sect. – 11.47 / 12.30 min
(gio counts the passing cars)

one
two
three
for
five
six

(video)

(links)

01 – Flash Art
02 – Arts of Working Class
03 – Museion

(credits)

Foto Documentation
Hannes Ochsenreiter, Luca Guadagnini

Video Documentation
Fabian Zöggeler

Director, Writer
Raphael Pohl

Assistant
Moritz Matha

Set Coordinator, Translator, Co. Assistent
Nana Chkhaidze

Actor
Gia Lezhava

Location Scout
Inga Chckaidze

Editor
Giorgio Flagranti

Sound Mastering
Lionel Leroy

Technical Support
Fabian Zöggeler, Leonard Pohl, Lionel Leroy, Markus Paller, Claudia Gruber

Production Partner
Ohnewein GmbH, ONG36

Supported by
the Cultural promotion department of the Autonomous Province of Bozen/ Bolzano

Borrowed objects
Gotschlich Karl GMBH, Pius Bischof

Thanks to
Museion Team