Ashley Hans Scheirl and Jakob Lena Knebl
59th Biennale di Venezia, Italy
20 April – 27 November 2022
In April 2022, La Biennale di Venezia opened the 59th International Art Exhibition. The Austrian Pavilion, curated by Karola Kraus and titled Invitation of the Soft Machine and Her Angry Body Parts, presented the work of Ashley Hans Scheirl and Jakob Lena Knebl. Invitation of the Soft Machine and Her Angry Body Parts (2022) is an installation work, a scenography in which different languages converge in favour of a work that expands in every corner of the pavilion, leaving room for imagination and opening to the fantasies of the visitors, who are invented to enter and explore a contemporary surreal imagery. The installation takes on a theatrical and almost cinematographic dimension reminiscent of sci-fi movies. These “sci fi ingredients” are the elements that define both sculptural and architectural space of the pavilion. The main reference in the construction of this imaginary are certainly the seventies that the artists use as a reference point not only iconographic but above all as a starting point to allude to socio-political issues on identity and its constant transformation. Phileas is proud to have co-produced a new series of works by the artists for the occasion.
