21.03 | 20.04 | 2019
curated by Barbara Pichler

Gianmaria Gava’s series Buildings is an ongoing visual study of the grammar of architecture. In these works, architecture and photography play against each other to reinforce their related significance.
The source material for the Buildings series are (architectural) photos that Gava takes of everyday built structures, which, through their aesthetic brute-ness alter perception of architectural reality: the artist has digitally eliminated visual elements of the buildings (such as windows and doors) in order to produce enclosed and liminal structures that occupy the photographic space in a new way. The objects create a nervous tension within the picture plane, as the gestalt of the buildings—and their shape— is re-objectified (as sculptures) by the artist’s conceptual ploy; and their minimalism produces seeming coolness and silence. The verisimilitude of the forms and their serial nature reveal a catalog of a type of “habitat”.

The project Buildings won in 2018 the 1st prize in the Sony World Photography Awards, category Architecture, and it is shown in Vienna for the first time.

GIANMARIA GAVA is an Italian artist, born in Venice in 1978. After graduating in Political Sciences at the University of Trieste, in 2004 he moved to Vienna where he is currently based. Gianmaria Gava’s work is mainly focused on exploring the impact of digital manipulation on perception. In a post-photographic or meta-photographic environment, digital imagery raises more questions than ever about our relation with the physical world. In 2018 he was the winner of the Sony World Photography Awards, professional category Architecture. His projects have been shown in several international venues such as: Somerset House, London, England, Kunst Haus Wien – Museum Hundertwasser, Vienna, Austria, CCC Strozzina, Firenze, Italy, La Casa dei Tre Oci, Venice, Italy, Willy Brandt House, Berlin, Germany, Villa Reale di Monza, Monza, Italy, Photoespana, Madrid, Spain, Pingyao Photofestival, Pingyao, China.
www.gianmariagava.com

FOTO WIEN takes place from March 20th to April 20th, 2019. For four weeks, FOTO WIEN illuminates the diversity and potential of the Viennese photo scene in cooperation with over 130 partner institutions, museums, galleries, art universities, artists’ initiatives and off-spaces. The “Opening Days” from the 20th of March offer not only exhibitions at the festival headquarters in the Otto Wagner Postsparkasse, but also an intensive discourse and management program, a photobook market, and much more. Talks and studio visits focusing on “Collecting Photography” are on the second festival weekend.

We gratefully acknowledge the financial support from Silberpfeil Architekten.