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Luxus für Alle!

Belvedere 21
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Luxury for All!
Date2022

Artist Michèle Pagel (geboren 1985 in Werdau)

Object typeSculpture
Mediumbar stool, drain cover, concrete, glazed ceramics, glazed bricks, paving stones, Molotov cocktails
Dimensions
ca.: 130 × 65 × 65 cm
Signatureunsigned
Inventory number11978
Location Belvedere 21
Credit LineAnkauf aus Mitteln der Galerienförderung des Bundes
In 1871 the Paris Commune sought to radically reorganize society under the slogan “Luxury for All.” Michèle Pagel translates this demand into one of her unconventional sculptures, which takes on the appearance of a shrimp cocktail. A barstool is placed on a manhole cover, supporting a concrete bowl that is in turn filled with crustaceans made of glazed bricks and paving stones, alongside two beer bottles repurposed as Molotov cocktails. In this work, Pagel shifts the aesthetics of consumption into a visual language of resistance. The ostensible serving glass becomes a display vessel for objects that merge into a disquieting metamorphosis of pleasure, status, and class struggle. In doing so, the artist suggests that the promise of luxury could become a scenario of potential violence. Here, art is understood as a means of appropriation and as a medium for sharpening social conflicts: between visibility and projection, between representation and action.

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2022 Ankauf Galerie Meyer Kainer, Wien

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