Michael Sailstorfer. Factory

Michael Sailstorfer. Factory

Michael Sailstorfer (born 1979, Velden (Vils); lives and works in Berlin) has been one of the most influential voices of contemporary sculpture for more than two decades. His works often take everyday objects, which the artist reconfigures, and transforms by placing them within surprising settings, as their starting point. His oeuvre is characterised by the interplay between function and autonomy, machine and organism, permanence and processual alteration, and by multi-layered allusions to human beings, their bodies, actions and emotions. Sailstorfer combines his keen interest in the possibilities of sculpture and its history with endless inventiveness and subtle humour.

On show at Kunstmuseum Gelsenkirchen are two new works by the artist, which link the internal space of the museum with its external surroundings. Installed in a central location on the museum’s forecourt, Sailstorfer’s Factory will act as a wintry place of encounter over the coming months. The majestic aluminium sculpture, consisting of a metal furnace with a combustion chamber, will be lit on a number of evenings during the run of the exhibition – an invitation for everybody to gather and chat in the warmth emanating from the sculpture. Reminiscent of an abstract heart, Sailstorfer’s sculpture makes reference to the organ’s life-giving function, producing an image both physical and poetic.

His second sculpture, sited inside the museum, fascinates thanks to the interplay between two radically differing found objects. The larger one dominates as a result of its enormous dimensions, whilst the other is tiny in comparison, and is kept in motion by a fan. In this work, entitled Triebwerk, Sailstorfer brings processes associated with movement found in nature into conjunction with technical propulsive forces, in order to explore the relationship between nature and the ways in which it is transformed by technical interventions.

With an unmistakable feel for the location and its social and aesthetic significance, Sailstorfer’s works take the museum from forecourt out into the city.