Elephant in the Room

»From Nose to Tail« is published on the occasion of Martin Wöhrl’s (b. 1974) solo exhibition »Elephant in the Room« in the summer of 2020 at Kunstverein Ingolstadt, which focused primarily on his concrete works. The title, meanwhile, is a term used in the field of gastronomy and refers to the most complete processing of an animal, from the tenderloin and its innards to its tail. Martin Wöhrl uses this reference because he attaches the same value to all the component materials of his sculptures, and he also works with the remnants of his productions to create ever new combinations. The Munich-born artist constructs his sculptures by combining ­tangible set pieces of actual existing architecture, either sacred or profane in nature, in a manner that encourages dialogue – such as linoleum and brass. It occasionally appears as though he created dream images while his mind went woolgathering. Initially, however, in keeping with an aesthetic core belief in a minimalist approach to material, he opted for wood, concrete, and plaster; he piled up concrete cubes, placed frames on the wall, or posi­tioned tubes and pipes within a space. The quoting use of architectural elements origi­nating from a sacred or profane context, such as a ­»Gothic« rosette, did then however result in ­expansions where for one thing minimalism ­collides with brutalism, and furthermore a disturb­ing adaptation of historicist appropriation seems to take place.