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Corporate Unwellness
Spaces in this world:
Statement:
From November 14 to 24, 2024, an extraordinary exhibition titled Corporate Unwellness took place in an empty office in Vienna’s Dornbach district. Organised by the new artist collective SCHWINDEL LLC, the exhibition explores themes of the modern workplace, held in a temporary office space.
Corporate Unwellness brings together 69 artistic perspectives, each reflecting on the office as a “non-place” and a site of workplace fantasy from the viewpoint of artists. The participating artists are split evenly between Austria and the international scene, offering a broad range of perspectives on global issues.
The exhibition occupies a currently vacant office at Dornbacher Straße 59 in Vienna’s 17th district. With this choice of location, SCHWINDEL LLC consciously harnesses the symbolic power of the space: bare, functional rooms, dark parquet flooring, a server room, office furniture. Far removed from the conventional white cube, the concept is directly shaped by the exhibition site. The starting points for artistic exploration include themes of home-office, office-home studio, transcultural exchange, social alienation, networking as social capital, the professionalisation of artists, and the visible increase in office vacancies.
The artworks span various media and formats: painting, sculpture, ceramics, print graphics, drawings, and installations, as well as digitally presented works in new media. Together, they construct a fragile fantasy office, blurring the line between utopia and dystopia in both our working world and the art world.
One office cell serves as the venue for a curated feature with a focus on digital and post-digital artworks, responding to the end of the office as the primary workplace. The guest contribution “A Cubical, Terminal,” curated by Helena McFadzean, addresses themes such as the attention economy and altered perceptions of work and office life in the age of platform capitalism.
SCHWINDEL LLC is a Vienna-based artist collective founded by Paula Oberndorfer and Esther Stern, focused on organizing and producing events and exhibitions. The collective aims for international collaboration, networking, and exchange.
The exhibition opened on November 14, 2024, from 5:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. Visitors can view the works on November 20 from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and on November 23 and 24 from 12:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m., or by appointment from November 15 to 24, 2024.
List of participating artists:
Belinda Chan, Bíborka Béres, Cay Rauscher, Ceramic Goonz, Clemens Grömmer, Coral Harding, Daniel Fajardo Gomez, Esther Stern, Ferdinand Altenburg, Frederik Foert, Friedrich Becke, global international, Gregor Beiwl, Hannah Jochmann, Herbert Brandl, Jeremias Rumpl, Jinji Yoshikawa, Johanna Fink, Ju Aichinger, Janne Schipper, Laura Põld, Leonie Pirker, Lin Jiayi, Liu Yujun, Lourenço Soares, Lukas Niedermeier, Lyu Xiaokai, Margarita Merkulova, Maria Luise Ernst Hummer, Martin Rovan, Matylda Płoszaj, Melanie Sien Min Lyn, Meltem Rukiye Calisir, Mia Tešić, Miriam Jochmann, Mohar Kalra, Morgane Billuart, Naomi Sam, Nico Schleicher, Nikita Sukhov, Owen Dunnigan, Paula Oberndorfer, Penthesilea, Paul Seipel, Rafael Lippuner, Rae Swan, Rebecca Erbacher, Roberto Batiza, Rubén Ezequiel Löwy, Sam Stewart, Seung-Yeon Jung, Shanelle St.Hilaire, Sheng Yuanjun, Sigmund Hutter, Sophia Hallmann, Theo Bartenberger, Timothy Hammer, Twins Corporated, Veronika Harb, Xin Huang, Yang Gang, Yao Wang, Yixuan Hu, Younggon Kim, Zein Majali, Zhang Lingjie, Zhan Shu, Zhuang Ruizhe, Zoë LeBrun
Curation:
Schwindel LLC (Paula Oberndorfer, Esther Stern), Helena McFadzean (A cubicle, Terminal)
Contact:
Email: llcschwindel@gmail.com - helmcfadzean@gmail.com
Instagram: @schwindelllc @construct.obi @stainedfingerscollective @honourrolll
3D Environment Description:
This environment revolves around a Lidar 3D scan of the exhibition showing the entire show combined with posters and graphics. Three audio pieces and three video works that were shown in the physical exhibition are displayed in this online version, hearable/seeable upon approach of the original locations of the pieces. 3D World by Franz-Xaver Rieder, Esther Stern.
Artworks in this space:
Artwork List
List with information on artists, works and contacts
s3r3nity_sp3llcast3rx2001 - 2024
“Hi, I‘m s3r3nity_sp3llcast3rx2001. My magic weaves through the very fabric of existence, mending wounds of the land and soul alike. You hear the gentle whispers of a world transformed. No longer confined by the shackles of oppressive systems, our craft extends beyond the manipulation of arcane forces. Our spells serve as catalysts for social transformation, unraveling the threads of inequality and injustice woven by centuries of capitalist and patriarchal dominance. As the world teetered on the brink of despair, many believed that the forces of capitalism and patriarchy had tightened their grip too firmly for liberation to ever be possible. For too long, we‘ve been conditioned to believe that there is no alternative to the system that exploits, marginalizes, and divides us. The weight of inequality, environmental degradation, and social unrest seemed insurmountable, casting a shadow of hopelessness over humanity. We dared to dream of a different reality. We refused to accept the narrative of inevitability that capitalism had woven around us. While heroes brandished swords of conquest, we were weaving spells illuminating the shadows cast by the structures of power. As the dungeon lords reveled in their hoarded riches, we were seeking not gold, but the alchemy of tenderness and care. We embrace the complexities of our shared reality, the interconnectedness of all beings, and recognize that our journey remains fraught with uncertainty and ambiguity. The power to shape our world lies not in the hands of the few, but in the collective imagination of the many”
FOMO Machine
“FOMO Machine” is a chrome extension that, whenever you try to log into social media, presents you a captcha with 9 images mined from your social media feeds. It then asks you to select all the images that seem better (more fun, more exciting, more productive etc) than your day thus far in order to prove that you are indeed not a robot. Select any of the images and the captcha results will be inconclusive. Select none and you can proceed to your desired destination. Alternatively, if you desire, you can outsource this encounter with your own insecurity to a bot which will select images for you. In this manner, “FOMO Machine” explores whether the feelings of insecurity that social media encourages us to addictively dwell on may condition our online selves to become more predictable, impressionable or even programmed.
untitled
11-4-100-#121
Composed of recordings taken over the course of a shift working in a gallery office, 11-4-100-#121 takes commonplace and monotonous everyday noises and layers them to create a soundscape that warps as it goes on, becoming slower gradually to mimic a slow workday. With its accompanying screen-recording video, we become the invisible gallery worker staring at a computer screen whose only reprieve is the brief walk to the water cooler.
mk-cd
ck-mb is a 6.21 minute ambisonic sound installation for two people facing each other in a reconstructed laboratory setting. Ranging from raw field recordings to introspective inner monologues, the sound material articulates the constantly repeated daily routines and sequences of a nurse, working in a medical lab. Different liminal spaces and interactions during blood drawings, sampled machines and technical devices, fragments of thought-strains as well as processed recordings are composed to a sound piece, that audibly reflects the restless yet calm continuity blurring two lives, where patient and nurse navigate a delicate threshold of mutual reliance and careful coordination. CK-MB is an isoenzyme of creatine kinase with an M (muscle) and a B (brain) subunit. It is predominantly localised in the myocardium. CK-MB is elevated when the heart (muscle) is damaged.
Work/Life Balance
Voice Actors: Rae Swan, Noah Sigurdson, Shanelle St. Hillaire
A Cubicle, Terminal. Poster
Corporate Unwellness Exhibition Poster
corporate unwellness scan
Corporate Unwellness Floorplan
We hope this exhibition finds you well. Regards, SCHWINDEL LLC Paula Oberndorfer Esther Stern