BAIT
Berlin, 2021, carbon fiber fishing rods, stainless steel boat railing elements, parachute silk, digital mixed flow fan, electronic components, wire rope
Press Releas:
DITTRICH & SCHLECHTRIEM is pleased to introduce the work of DANIEL HÖLZL (b. Schwaz, Austria, 1994) as part of GALLERY WEEKEND *DISCOVERIES 2021. In his first presentation with our gallery, Hölzl creates a site-specific performative-sculptural installation on and extending off the facade of the gallery building located at Linienstraße 23, Berlin-Mitte. The project, titled BAIT, will be on view day and night for the duration of the Gallery Weekend *Discoveries programming, Wednesday through Sunday, September 15–19, from 11 AM to 7 PM.
The two main elements of the installation, inflated parachute silk and contorted carbon fiber poles, respond to the building’s distinctive architecture while raising concerns of hierarchy, prey, temporality, and potential.
Projecting from the ground-floor freight elevator door is an exact full-scale replica of its interior space, tailored out of white parachute silk. This form is then mirrored and hung directly above it, installed from the second-floor window. Each form is filled with air and programmed to inflate and deflate. Each entity moves in synchronized alternation, in response to each other.
Extending from the main gallery entrance and street level and overhanging upper gallery windows are series of carbon fiber fishing rods. Fixed in place with magnets and ropes, these structures reach away from the architecture, then curve again inward, bending into the building, augmented by their potential.
In Bait, Hölzl continues to investigate the dynamics of built environments. Employing carefully selected materials, the artist focuses on the transience of every moment while connecting the installation to the site and its visitors. The objects relate and respond to their surroundings, obtaining social awareness and performing as we do, jointly shaped by our physical and increasingly digital infrastructures.
