December 7 - 25 January, 2020
FELIX GAUDLITZ
Werdertorgasse 4/2/13
1010 Vienna
Photography: kunst-dokumentation.com
Courtesy the artist and FELIX GAUDLITZ, Vienna
Courtesy the artist and FELIX GAUDLITZ, Vienna
There are five books on a desk. One book is an inquiry into gambling addiction and the design of
casinos and slot machines. Then, there is a recent translation of four plays by Euripides, and a third
one, a scrutinized presentation of the male body in everyday life from 50’s Hollywood until today. The
fourth takes us through the history of social class in the United States and how the land was colonized
by a population of “waste people”, “lazy lubbers” and “crackers”. The last and final one is a historical
overview of suicide, a reflection of the exclusive human capacity of being able to choose life or death.
Looking at these five books, the mind moves quickly from one to the other. The connection is where
the thinking happens, and this so called “connection”, an accidental act of free association, is where
things suddenly exhilarate. It is through this specific transformative mode that one can forget about
everything, maybe feeling impermanent whilst stopping the mental back and forth of thesis, antithesis
and summary.
A precondition for the work is that it has a shape that was not known when starting out. Its accuracy is made through an abstract element softly introduced to make any narrative unlinear. The
structure of unanswerable questions is created in order to occupy the mind while dealing with reality.
Once the work has its shape, it’s thrown into a vacuum, so we can stop, recline and watch. Is this Hell?
With a lack of summary there is also no answer. What does an answer answer, anyway?
- H.F.F.