Marit Wolters

The Austrian Cultural Forum New York is pleased to present its summer art installation Everything That Is Solid Dissolves Into Air by Erste Bank ExtraVALUE Art Award recipient Marit Wolters. Everything That Is Solid Dissolves Into Air envisions an optimistic image of our society while inviting us to reflect on the transformative potential established by the relational processes stemming from social issues such as migration.

By breaking up standardized methods of processing and assembling materials, the Vienna-based artist Marit Wolters questions the relation we have with the structures that constitute our society. Architecture decisively influences our behavior, our feelings, and the way we perceive life. Its structures provide information on social ideas, processes and functional mechanisms.

For her solo exhibition at the Austrian Cultural Forum New York, Wolters uses materials that are known from the construction industry: Aerated concrete sculptures and reinforced steel structures are created in a dialectic process of assembly and disassembly, demolding and reformulation. Her processual work allows the possibility of failure as a method of development and constitution. In her sculptures the potential of collapsing is present, sometimes endured, often exploited, in order to make new assemblages possible. What is assumed and perceived as stable becomes fragile and fragmentary, a metaphor of our time.

For the opening of the exhibition, Wolters will converse with Vienna-based artist Luisa Kasalicky about their artistic practices. Kasalicky is currently an artist in residence at the International Studio & Curatorial Program (ISCP) in Brooklyn, New York, with support from the BKA (Bundeskanzleramt Österreich). The artists' discussion will be moderated by Kari Conte, Director of Program and Exhibitions at ISCP.

Marit Wolters (*1985 in Achim, Germany) studied at the Academy of Fine Arts, Dresden, and the University of Applied Arts, Vienna. Wolters has received several awards and grants of institutions such as the DAAD, the Syn Foundation, and the Republic of Austria. Her work has been exhibited internationally including shows at the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation; Hamburger Bahnhof; Staatliche Museen zu Berlin; Sculpture Park, Joanneum Graz; Academy of Science in Halle; Krinzinger Projekte, Vienna. Wolters lives and works in Vienna.

A collaboration between the Austrian Cultural Forum New York, studio das weisse haus, and Erste Bank, the Erste Bank ExtraVALUE Art Award was initiated in 2016 with the aim to promote a young artist and facilitate a one-month residency in New York as a phase of inspiration and to expand their network. Artists whose work has already been presented in das weisse haus or who have participated in the studio and residency program of studio das weisse haus are eligible to submit entries for the ExtraVALUE Art Award.

With its architectural landmark building in Midtown Manhattan, the Austrian Cultural Forum New York is dedicated to innovative and cutting-edge programming, showcasing the best of Austrian contemporary art, music, literature, performance, and academic thought in New York and throughout the United States. In addition to presenting three group exhibitions per year in its multi-level gallery space and housing around 10,000 volumes of Austriaca in its state-of-the-art library, it hosts over 100 free events per year in its own auditorium and supports at least as many projects at partner institutions across the nation.