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Mario Kiesenhofer
Floating
In his first solo exhibition at Smolka Contemporary, Mario Kiesenhofer shows new works from his ongoing series Treasure, for which he portrays the queer rave scene in Eastern Europe. Initially created in the context of the Warsaw scene, the series was first shown in 2023/24 in a solo exhibition curated by Lisa Ortner-Kreil at the tresor of the Bank Austria Kunstforum Vienna and was then exhibited at the Austrian Cultural Forum Warsaw.
The exhibition takes place as part of the Vienna Art Week and the Rotlicht Festival for analogue photography.
Artist Talk
On November 11th from 6 – 7 pm we invite you to an artist talk between Mario Kiesenhofer and Lisa Ortner-Kreil (Bank Austria Kunstforum Wien).
About the exhibition
In this exhibition, Kiesenhofer celebrates the queer community in Budapest and captures the techno beats with his camera. He shows gem-colored portraits of key figures in the Hungarian scene, framed in shiny chrome frames. Portraits that counter discriminatory narratives of illiberal systems with a queer perspective and create visibility for marginalized identities. Bathed in colored flashlight, Mario Kiesenhofer’s photographs from the Treasure series reflect a party culture in which the techno scene of the 1990s is experiencing a revival and at the same time is making a highly resistant and political claim. The club becomes an inclusive place of protest and the dance floor a stage for queerness in times of increasing autocratisation.
The exhibition title Floating refers, among other things, to the precarious situation of queer people in Hungary and points out that their rights are constantly in limbo, as they are repeatedly threatened by political and social repression. With the rise of illiberal systems and the accompanying queer hostility, queer communities within the EU are facing increasing pressure and hard-won human rights are being systematically restricted.
The sound installation Floating sets the atmospheric foundation for the exhibition, capturing the aural state of floating. In this AI-generated soundscape, dark, deconstructed techno basslines form a sonic framework that creates a nebulous slow-motion atmosphere at 60 beats per minute, putting the viewer in a state of drift and dissolution of boundaries. The use of AI refers to the role of technology and the manipulation of information in authoritarian political systems. Fog permeates the space, visually and atmospherically linking the soundscape to the photographs. The vocals “Category is Resistance” and “Category is Resilience” are in the tradition of voguing and highlight the resistance and resilience of the LGBTQIA+ community. Voguing is a dance style that originated in the queer ballroom scene in New York in the 1970s and is still an integral part of queer culture today.
The work Untitled (Silver Lining) separates the space as a metallic curtain, serving as a hybrid display and barrier. Like a silver lining on the horizon, it becomes a metaphor for hope and resilience shining through the dark clouds of illiberal politics. “Lining” also refers to fashion and represents the inside of a garment, the core that often remains hidden and is now made visible.
Mario Kiesenhofer (*1984 in Freistadt, Austria) lives in Vienna and works with photography, video, text and installation. He studied photography and video art under Matthias Herrmann and Dorit Margreiter at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. His work has been shown nationally and internationally and his focus is on the representation and visibility of queer communities and the question of the significance of queer safe spaces in our present. Opaque materials, glass filters, special framing techniques and reflective surfaces are inherent elements in the artist‘s oeuvre. Combined with photographs, they create pictorial spaces that are simultaneously tangible and intangible, physical and metaphysical.
The artist thanks:
K!NK Budapest
HIR Gala
Dirty Cash Budapest
Vogue Dawn
Lisa Ortner-Kreil
Elisabeth Melichar
Pia Melichar
Jana Wieland