Installation

MQ Artist-in-Residence Ádám Ulbert
The Necessity of Translation May Be the Necessity of Reformulation

10.04. – 21.05.2025, 10-22h l MQ Schauraum Anita Fuchs
Opening: Wed 09.04., 18h

On 9 April, there will also be simultaneous openings in the MQ Schauräume and an exhibition opening at the eSeL Reception.

MQ Artist-in-Residence Ádám Ulbert, who is living and working in the MuseumsQuartier from March to April 2025 as part of the MQ focus on Art & Ecology, will be showing three light boxes with photographs of sculptural works in Anita Fuchs’ showroom.

The starting point for his installation is a contemporary reinterpretation of early 20th-century ecological thinkers and artists. Ulbert takes particular inspiration from the biocentrism of the natural philosopher, botanist, and microbiologist Raoul Heinrich Francé (1874–1943), who published the book Die Pflanze als Erfinder in 1920 and Das Leben der Pflanzen in 1921. His basic premise is that the origin of life is primarily biological and precedes all consciousness. Consequently, biology is the discipline with which the processes of life and the mind can best be understood and described. Bios (life) carries the knowledge (the DNA code) within itself, with which it is constantly building and expanding. In this sense, all spiritual and material things can be seen as something that forever carries within itself its biomorphic origins and interfaces.

For Ádám Ulbert, the depicted scarecrow with the title Organic intelligence 1 (Solarpunk biotechnology meets Raoul Francé) represents a sort of shaman standing on the frontiers between the material and the spiritual. In constant exchange with the elements of nature, the scarecrow becomes a culture of nature, which means that the boundaries between nature and culture are dissolved here. Standing on the edge of cultivated land or gardens, the scarecrow embodies a connection between the organic and the technological.

Curator: Elisabeth Hajek

CV:
Ulbert’s research focuses on the connections between fine art, ecology, and science-fiction. He obtained his Master of Fine Arts degree at the Sandberg Instituut in Amsterdam in 2014. He then attended a two-year postgraduate residency program at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten in 2016–17.  In 2021, he was one of the winners of the Esterházy Art Award and in 2018 he won the Mondriaan Fonds Established Artist scholarship. His solo presentations include shows at the Longtermhandstand, Budapest, Karlin Studios, Prague, Stedelijk Museum Bureau, Amsterdam. He has taken part in several group exhibitions: EKO 9 Triennial of Art and Environment, < rotor > association for contemporary art, Graz (2023) OFF-Biennále Budapest (2021), Villa Du Parc Contemporary Art Center, Annemasse, France (2019), Abstract Hungary at KM–Graz (2017).

Details art works:

Organic intelligence 1. (Solarpunk biotechnology meets Raoul Francé)
wood, aluminum, paper mache, coconut, silkscreen print on t-shirt
approx.: 200 x 100 x 50 cm.

unnamed objects: 1–3
bronze
approx.: 30 cm