Thomas Geiger: Private Monuments

Dear visitor,

while one hole on Beyers Naude Square had become the staging ground for Kunsthalle3000 in Johannesburg, there had became apparent to me 8 other holes within the square – each of which presented themselves to me equally as stages for activation as the Kunsthalle it- self. When I left Johannesburg, I took the shapes of the remaining 8 holes with me – intent on making them rise themselves as eight stages in a different place. These stages are built here in this exhibition with bricks, as a positive of the original holes and as an echo of the daily life on public squares an the spontaneous gestures of its visitors.
For you the viewer, eight dedications can be found as an instruction for a small performance or momentary gesture to activate these newly created stages. These are Private Monuments, created as much from my own memory as from each generous moment and gesture afforded them by visitors who pass them by: Long lives ephemeral monumentality!

Thomas Geiger

Thomas Geiger, born in 1983, lives and works in Vienna. His interdisciplinary work origi- nates from the interaction with the public space. On some occasions the artist appears as observer, in others he takes action himself. He shifts the perspective on existing situations through minimal activities, uncovering hidden social structures. He is co-founder of the Mark Pezinger publishing house for artists’ books, initiator of the Kunsthalle3000 (an institution as intervention in public space) as well as the Festival of Minimal Actions (a festival for ephemeral actions and interventions).
Private Monuments is his second solo exhibition at SPERLING.
Most recently Geiger’s were exhibited, among others, at Bluecoat (Liverpool), Centro de Arte Contemporáneo (Quito), Bregenz Biennale, glassbox (Paris), Goethe-Institut Oslo, Kunsthalle Tropical (Iceland), Nicolas Krupp Gallery (Basel), Rib (Rotterdam). He is currently preparing the third part of Kunsthalle3000, which will take place in Beirut in May 2017.