On the river (a wasp drifts sleeping but only)

Opening: May 3, 2003, 3 p.m.
Exhibition duration: May 5 to June 27, 2003

Press release

In his first solo exhibition, Misha Stroj, an artist born in Ljubljana in 1974, will present further problems taken from his copious book: „moma. the museum of the mechanical age“. After studying philosophy he began to study art at the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts in 1997. He completed his studies with the above-cited book project and a prize of recognition awarded by the Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Culture 2002. Shortly thereafter, he showed an impressive piece (“Schrödinger’s Kitchen”) in a group show.

„Schrödinger’s Kitchen“ emerged from problem no. 59. “The problem of sedimentation and of thinning out. The clarity of the affect. All forces” which is manifested in a transformation of the artist’s own kitchen. A sculpture emerged from the linoleum floor, the wall boards joined by tongue and groove and a blue table top. It is associated with “the probably last photograph depicting Schrödinger”. Misha Stroj lays a trail, suspending a thread between the elements of text/image/object and claims to have solved the problem.

In his latest work he goes back to the beginning. Problem no. 1, which already addresses the issue of the beginning, is “The Problem of Volatility and the Frenzy of Legitimation. The Formation of Signs”. The first picture in “moma” shows a figure in the back court yard throwing a typewriter with well-rehearsed verticality – the perpendicular toss ensures that the thrown object will return to the person throwing it. In a further move, the work will deal with a speedskater known as Offenberger who falls right before reaching the goal. With this fall he seems to go down in the pictorial history of the public media – more than the actual winners of this race.

In Misha Stroj’s walks the fine line between necessity and possibility becomes particularly evident. These are conceptions that do not fall silent in their own explanations but rather take it upon themselves to exist on this thin foundation, that is precisely this indecisiveness. The beginning has already set in. Misha Stroj will proceed from exactly this point.