ARTIST TALK WITH ROBERT GABRIS & BETTINA SIEGELE

GESTURES OF AFFECTION
Laura Cemin, Robert Gabris, Anna Lerchbaumer, and caner teker

curated by Bettina Siegele

The exhibition Gestures of Affection is devoted to the practice of loving, to tenderness as affirmative action, and the body as central to utopias. It brings together artistic positions that renegotiate these concepts, setting processes in motion that question the prevailing patriarchal structures and explore new ways of encountering ourselves, our fellow human beings, and our surroundings with greater tenderness. Gestures of Affection is the first exhibition curated especially for the Tiroler Künstler:innenschaft by the new curator and managing director Bettina Siegele.

Robert Gabris, born in former Czechoslovakia, lives and works in Vienna. He studied at the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava (SK) and the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. His artistic work deals with multiple questions of identity, queerness, and marginalisation in normative social structures. Drawing as an experimental form serves thereby as a method of resistance against exclusion and racism. In addition to drawing, the artist uses a variety of media: from poetry to performance and sculptural objects. As part of the Roma community, he is also strongly committed to the community. Most recently, his works have been shown at the Bergen Assembly / Bergen (NOR), the Temporary Gallery, Cologne (DEU), The Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts in New York (USA), documenta fifteen, Kassel (DEU), among others. Robert Gabris is the current recipient of the Belvedere 21 Art Award.
www.robertgabris.com