The Lentos Museum of Modern Art Shows "Ralo Mayer - Obviously a Major Malfunction"

Written by Abigail Troughton Wednesday, 08 February 2012 20:22

Linz, Austria.- The Lentos Museum of Modern Art is pleased to present "Ralo Mayer: Obviously a Major Malfunction", on view at the museum through October 23rd. Featuring 4.56-billion-year-old meteorites, a painting from the collection of the Lentos, a closed eco system and a checklist that travelled to the moon and back with the astronauts on board Apollo, such diverse objects are used by Ralo Mayer in the first part of his exhibition to throw light on his own work from the last few years. Ralo Mayer is the winner of the Triennale Linz Award, which was first presented in summer 2010. Space, the history of its exploration and utopias that tried (in the past) to predict what the world would look like in the future form the thematic backdrop for these works. Like all science fiction that deserves the name, they are deeply rooted in present-day reality and transfer social and economic facts into multifaceted stories.

In the second part of the exhibition Mayer presents a new large-scale installation. It continues his exemplary exploration of objects in time and space, focusing on “the most complex machine ever built”. This title rightfully belongs to the United States Space Shuttle, which is said to consist of more than 2.5 million individual components. Two space shuttles broke apart in mid-air, one in 1986 and the other in 2003. When Challenger disintegrated into plumes of white smoke, a NASA commentator famously informed the tens of millions of horror-stricken viewers following the catastrophe on TV that “obviously a major malfunction” had occurred. What about the period whose beginning and end are marked by space shuttle disasters? What events does it owe its specific flavour to? Mayer’s reconstruction features not only charred remains of the space shuttles but also fragments of the reactor in Chernobyl, the Berlin Wall and the Twin Towers. His presentation of these relics takes its cue from an emancipatory interpretation of the so-called Cargo Cults, with which Melanesian and other tribal societies tried to cope with their traumatic encounters with colonial powers. The cargo bay, a storage space for all kinds of freight, is also an important feature of the Space Shuttle. The Space Shuttle was conceived in the late 1960s as a reliable vehicle able to commute between the earth and the space colonies then in the pipeline. The Vietnam War and the United States’ economic woes subsequently caused NASA’s budget to shrink and the Space Colonies remained science fiction. The Shuttle was built nevertheless, and for a vehicle whose original purpose had all but dissolved into thin air its 30-year record of service is impressive. The Space Shuttle will complete its last mission in the summer of this year.


From the Celtic for "located at the bend of the river", The Lentos Museum of Modern Art, which opened in May 2003, is among the most important museums of modern art in Austria. The clear and coherent structural design, created by the award winning Zurich architects Weber & Hofer, provides Linz with a museum of art of international status, positioned in the urban context. The internationally acclaimed 130 meter long building by the Zurich architects Weber & Hofer provides approximately 8400 m2 for use and is located directly on the Danube River between the Nibelungen Bridge and Brucknerhaus. Starting from the collection holdings, which focus on masterpieces of European painting from the first half of the 20th century and a rich collection of graphic art and high quality photography, Lentos draws an arch from the classical historical art of the early 20th century to the most current art positions of today.Building on the collection of the Berlin art dealer Wolfgang Gurlitt (1888-1965), the holdings have been richly expanded since 1953. The Collection consists of roughly 1,800 works of painting, sculpture and object art as well as over 17,000 works on paper, including 850 photographs. The earliest works in the museum are from the first half of the 19th century (C.D. Friedrich, J.B. Reiter) whilst the landscape and portrait painting of the 19th century is represented with masterpieces of German Romanticism, Austrian Biedermeier, Historicism, Atmospheric Impressionism and the Secessionism. The collection of The Lentos Museum is filled with unique fine art. In the field of classical Modernism, Lentos has important paintings by Gustav Klimt, Egon Schiele, Oscar Kokoschka, Lovis Corinth and Max Pechstein. From the inter-war period there are works of German and Austrian Expressionism and Neue Sachlichkeit (Carl Hofer, Franz Sedlacek, Albin Egger-Lienz,Müller and Modersohn-Becker). The period after 1945 is illustrated with works of international art, including paintings, sculptures and graphic works by Karel Appel, Herbert Bayer, Ernst Wilhelm Nay, Andy Warhol, Keith Haring, Maria Lassnig, Markus Lüpertz, Arnulf Rainer, Eduardo Chillida, Sean Scully, and Stephan Balkenhol. In addition to the outstanding graphic art collection with important compilations from Kubin to Pop Art, Lentos also has several hundred art-historically significant photographs (A. Rodtschenko, Man Ray, H. Bayer). The collection of sculptures, statues and objects of the Lentos Kunstmuseum includes about 450 exhibits. Many of the sculptures stem from the 1980s and 1990s, including works by Sepp Auer, Manfred Erjautz, Bruno Gironcoli, Manfred Wakolbinger and Erwin Wurm. International artists are represented by Stephan Balkenhol, Ernst Barlach, Michael Buthe, Anthony Caro, Amadeo Gabino, Jiri Kolar, and Tom Wesselmann in the collection. The graphic art holdings of the Lentos currently include some 10,000 exhibits. The photo collection of the LENTOS Kunstmuseum currently includes about 1,100 exhibits. It focuses on historical photography, new objectivity, artist portraits, post-war photography affiliated with the "Magnum" photo agency and contemporary positions. Visit the museum's website at ... http://www.lentos.at

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