Heinz Gappmayr

10 locations

• 1 | ZEUGHAUS

  

  one, deux, three, quattro, 1990, WVZ. 984

  Location:
  Armoury
  Zeughausgasse 1

  ---

  I think what might be exciting about my father's works is the fact that they actually seem very unproblematically simple. There is a number on each side of the cube. Number texts were a great love of my father's. He was always of the opinion that the numbers addressed fundamental philosophical questions. If you think of the threshold between zero and one, for example, that is a real abyss. But something else is implied here. If you ask a child today to count to ten, they might say one, two, three, four ... from a certain age at least. In other words, people very often think of numbers in sequences. So one, two, three ... ten seems like a very familiar, unquestionable sequence of numbers. My father was also very fond of the numbers from one to nine, because in a certain sense they are the basis of all numbers. There is a text in which the numbers from one to nine can be seen at regular intervals, but the four is missing. What is being thematised here is that we no longer question this linearity and this sequence-like, sequential nature of numbers. Many people have not even noticed that the four is missing because it is so familiar that we no longer question it. But what is thematised in the work at the Zeughaus is, on the one hand, that the number is almost like a determination of the side of the cube on which it stands. So, when we walk around the cube, each side has a designation. In a certain sense, this creates an identity. In other words, the side with the one is different from the side with the two. But what is now added is the multilingualism. It interrupts the familiar linearity by suddenly confronting us with sequences of letters that we are not used to. Of course, if you know the languages, this is not an issue, but it is this seemingly unproblematic linearity of the sequence one to four that is interrupted and you realise that you are dealing with different languages. The respective typeface is also completely different. This then leads to questions such as: How do different languages come about in the first place? How do languages come about? Is a term the same in another language? All these questions play a major role in a supposedly simple constellation. Numbers certainly have different physiognomies. Odd numbers are considered to be rather open. In any case, four has something closed about it, which corresponds to the four surfaces in different languages.
• 2 | TAXISPALAIS KUNSTHALLE TIROL

  

  Vectors, 1993, WVZ. 1389

  Location:
  TAXISPALAIS
  Tyrol Art Gallery
  Maria-Theresien-Strasse 45

  ---

  There was a similar work by my father in an exhibition at the Kunsthaus Zug. There was a single arrow pointing upwards in the centre of a very large wall. In the context here at TAXISPALAIS, I think it's nice that the work is set like a poster. Four arrows point outwards from an imaginary centre. It is incredible how it is possible to set a white surface in motion, to dynamise it, without any linguistic indicators or concepts. The work has no title, but everyone understands that the centre, the core, the inner point of tension is in the middle of the picture surface. Only the four vectors allow conclusions to be drawn, the centre remains diffuse, intangible, but as an imaginary trigger for outward movement. This contrast between the intensity of the dynamic movement from the pictorial space and the concentration of tension in an intangible centre is what makes this work so appealing. My father was striving here for a formally minimal possibility of placing a picture surface in a state of suspension. It is a breaking up of what is understood by pictorial space. The decisive factor is beyond the visible picture surface, outside the pictorial space, and the origin of the tension is also not visible, but exists only in the imagination.
• 3 | KUNSTRAUM INNSBRUCK / GALLERY ELISABETH & KLAUS THOMAN

  

  Past Present Future, 1992, WVZ. 1117

  Location:
  Kunstraum Innsbruck / Elisabeth and Klaus Thoman Gallery
  Maria-Theresien-Straße 34

  ---

  The two concepts of time and space play an essential role in my father's work. He has always been concerned with the question of how it is possible to visualise the passing of time, the present and the future. Here at the Kunstraum, for example, we have a non-linguistic version, a time piece consisting only of lines. In another work, war ist wird, my father uses verb forms to represent time. But what is exciting here is that a line also contains a temporal aspect through a boundary. So in the three-part work there is a line on the left with a conclusion on the right. As we read from left to right, we see it as a completed line, we associate it with the past. In the centre is a small vertical line that is understood as the immediate present due to the context of the other two lines. This subtle transition between what was and what is corresponds to an aporia. It is the indissoluble question of the moment, of the now. The right-hand surface begins with the boundary, which in its continuation as a horizontal line intends the future. It is a postulate of what will one day be. It is a very minimalist work. There are several works by my father in which he deals with the actual and present state. Here it is condensed, condensed in this one centre line, which separates the other two, the past and the future, but at the same time also compresses them. They are all interdependent.
• 4 | HOFKIRCHE

  

  ist wird, 1969, WVZ. 199

  Location:
  Court Church
  University Street 2

  ---

  We know the = sign from equations or mathematical constellations. However, the word "wird" also changes the = sign. Here, a mathematical sign is transferred into a different context, namely a linguistic one. Suddenly this seemingly purely mathematical = becomes a symbol for the moment, the now. In purely physiognomic terms, it is very beautiful that two short parallel lines epitomise a now. But what is essential is that this inherently mathematical sign implies something like the immediate present. What is particularly subtle is that it is not a linguistic sign, because a linguistic utterance goes beyond the moment. We grasp a mathematical sign immediately. What actually is the present? The mathematical implies something eternal, something immovable, you could say, more than the word itself. What I like about the word "will" is that it implies something future, but the word is very present, as if the future were part of the present and not just a hunch. The almost analytical, supposedly distanced way of depicting it is in a tense interplay with the emotionality and the existential aspect of time.
• 5 | HERZOG-OTTO-STRASSE 8

  

  everything not visible, 2005

  Location:
  obermoser + partner architects
  Herzog-Otto-Strasse 8

  ---

  The fact that we see very little of the world directly is very exciting. Of course, there are also intrinsically non-visible concepts such as hope, love and time. But if we remain in the world of the objective, pure visualisation is very limited. The possibilities of our vision only encompass the immediately given. This means that when we are in Innsbruck now, not even the whole of Innsbruck is directly present. We can imagine places beyond what we can see directly. But all these places that we think of at a particular moment exist only in our imagination and are not immediately perceptible or visible as objects. So if this indicator means everything that is not visible, then the question arises: what is the visible, and what is the difference between the visible and the non-visible? The visible is actually very limited. This can also be understood more comprehensively, in such a way that the visible is all things, all phenomena that we can perceive with our sensory organs. But what is directly visible is only what is present in our field of vision. The much larger and more important part of the world, or of all questions in general, is everything that is not visible. Therefore, everything that is not visible is a very universal text. All of this is summarised in its precise setting. It is an almost cosmic concept because it encompasses the essential, there is much more invisible than visible. It is also independent of the individual, as it does not say: "everything that I cannot see", but rather: "everything that is not visible". Objectification makes it clear that it is about a factuality beyond individual conditions.
• 6 | GEIWI-TURM UNIVERSITY OF INNSBRUCK

  

  Thought, 1969, WVZ. 197

  Location:
  GEIWI Tower / University of Innsbruck
  Innrain 52

  ---

  The analogy to a place of science and the communication of things that all have to do with thinking is very obvious. "Thought" is first of all something individual, it is a singular. "Thought" in the singular has something categorical about it, like "time" and "space". Isn't the word "thought" strange per se, as it is a term for something that only exists in the imagination? This brings us involuntarily to considerations, to the connection between language and thought. How do we think? Do we think in images? Do we think in language? What is thinking? Basically, many of my father's works are suggestions. They often have an indicative character. They invite us to reflect on fundamental existential human conditions. This also includes thinking. How does our thinking work? It is fascinating that people are able to reflect on their own states of mind, their existence, using various shapes and lines that form characters, words or sentences. This is stimulated by this one word. gedanke is a kind of trigger, like an invitation. The materiality is also astonishing. They are aluminium letters that have a great physical presence for something that does not even exist in our perception. It is pure imagination.
• 7 | ./STUDIO3 - INSTITUTE FOR EXPERIMENTAL ARCHITECTURE

  

  Echo, 1995, WVZ. 1764

  Location:
  ./studio3 - institute for experimental architecture
  Technician Street 21

  ---

  In the visual arts, in literature and in music, there are topoi, recurring themes. Landscape painting is one of the great everlasting themes. But nature poems also play a very important role in literature and poetry. My father referred to them in various works. This brings us back to the musical, lyrical aspects of his work at ./studio3. The word "echo" is in itself a very beautiful word with a poetic connotation. It has to do with sound, with return, but in a different form. The echo is quieter. What is very beautiful about my father's version is that the letters do not represent the echo of the word "ECHO" in a tautological sense, it is rather a kind of sound study. The word does not follow the usual reading direction, it is about the interplay between the viewer and the word. One imagines that a sound is sent out and then returns. But the echo in this work is a purely linguistic reality.
• 8 | THE TIROL PANORAMA

  

  Brackets, 1966, WVZ. 140

  Location:
  The Tyrol Panorama
  Bergisel 1-2

  ---

  The bracket is a very good example of the fact that my father was particularly interested in the differences, tensions and different genealogies between different characters in writing. He always emphasised that writing, if you think in terms of words, is the different formations of a single line. But there are also signs that are not linguistic in nature, such as mathematical signs: + , - , × and so on. The problem of punctuation fascinated him from the very beginning of his artistic career. There is a very famous text by him, a typewritten text from 1964, about the word "sind". Once the word "sind" is written on the surface, another "sind" is crossed out, once it is in inverted commas and once in brackets. He is already playing with the different meanings of non-linguistic signs. Inverted commas can mean different things. In literature, for example, inverted commas indicate direct speech. However, if you put something in inverted commas, this can also mean that the term is not real. A parenthesis is a strange thing; in a sense, it emphasises something by formally marking it. On the other hand, a parenthesis very often has the character of something that is added, but which is perhaps less important than what was said before. From a hierarchical point of view, it is something that is set back. There are many works by my father that are already based on the traditional reading direction of European languages. In other words, we normally read from left to right. And it's the same with this work. The exciting thing is the brackets themselves. The (fictitious) term that is in the bracket increases in importance. This is visualised by the ever-increasing spacing within the brackets. The decisive factor, however, is that there is no content, but what appears emphasised or reduced by the brackets is in the imagination of the viewer. It is a kind of intensification of meaning, and that is why the work is also very beautiful in its dimension. In order to see the work in its entirety, you have to walk along the façade and thus also have an increase in semantic meaning.
• 9 | AUT. ARCHITEKTUR UND TIROL / ARCHIV FÜR BAU.KUNST.GESCHICHTE

  

  Line, 1966, WVZ. 145

  Location:
  aut. architektur und tirol /
  Archive for Building.Art.History
  Lois Welzenbacher Square 1

  ---

  A line is very interesting both as a drawing and architecturally as well as a concept. In this work you can see again what is meant by analogy in my father's work. The word "line" is to be read from left to right, according to our usual reading direction. By realising it as a letter, we see an interplay between the meaning of the conceptual and the object of the line as an extra-linguistic sign. A line embodies expansion. Here it is a horizontal line, an extension in space, in the movement from left to right. But in the centre of the line formed from repeating words, geometric linearity meets a paradoxical linguistic reality. Only in writing is it possible to suddenly change the direction of the line. Language thus appears to be a stronger force than the drawn form itself. In the centre of the imaginary line, it is mirrored horizontally, so to speak, the direction of reading changes, we read the word from right to left. This is about the suggestive power of language, i.e. writing, which, as it were, exaggerates the intended graphic element. Added to this is the semantic relevance of the location, which, as a house of architecture, picks up on the tension between linguistic and architectural reality.
• 10 | INNSBRUCK CITY LIBRARY/ PLATFORM 6020

  

  space around an object, 1978, WVZ. 378

  Location:
  Innsbruck City Library /
  Platform 6020
  Amraser Street 2

  ---

  In the work raum um einen gegenstand my father thematises the concept of the representational. The word, which derives its meaning from the word "to oppose", is a strange concept. It implies something that stands opposite people, something that is separate from them in a certain sense. The word "object" has its own identity and extension. It is a prerequisite for it to exist at all. But there is no concrete object here, rather it is postulated that the object must have an extension, otherwise it would not be possible to perceive it as an object at all. This in turn implies the space that surrounds this object. The recipients are also involved in this work. Reception is a constitutive part of this work, as we move in a world in which we are confronted with things that also exist independently of us.