Venske & Spänle

LA VIDA DE LA ESCULTURA

JAVIER HONTORIA

The fundamental subject that runs through their discourse is the material, a type of marble extracted from the Italian quarry of Lasa. From what the artists tell us they usually make the first cuts in their study in Munich and then finish off the sculpture and polish it in the New York neighbourhood of Brooklyn. It is undoubtedly the extraordinary malleability of these abstract entities, their elasticity and dynamism which can lead viewers to some worrying crossroads. Where do these shapes emerge from? Do they really have life?

Julia Venske and Gregor Spänle are sculptors, but, is their language solely and purely sculptural? No. It may appear to be, yes, in view of the materials they use and the way they proceed with their work, but their work not only centres on terrain that could belong to other disciplines, but rather, it appears to contradict the basic principles of the discipline itself. 

A major part of these new stimuli are reaffirmed in the relationship between viewers, space and the sculptures themselves. It is an obvious hidden message to the minimalist practices of the sixties, those reviled by Michael Fried through his excessively theatrical character.

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