Belmacz is delighted to announce Jakob Lena Knebl’s first UK solo exhibition.
I am he as you are he as you are me. And we are all together will establish a space of desire and transition.

What’s your favourite drink?
Cola Zero.

 

Are you trying to be provocative?
No. I am trying to invite!

 

Is the male body all fantasy?
It’s about desire — making the male body other, or into an object.

 

Is there hope for Austria?
There is always hope. But the question is, not only in Austria, but worldwide — will there be a radical motion away from surreal capitalism.

 

Is there a relationship between sex and art?
Desire. Attraction. Rhythm. Focus and irritation.

 

If you could bring something extinct back to life, what would you choose?
1968 and the moments when I first was discovering things, when I was a child and in my youth.

 

Whose histories do you redeem in your work?
Youth culture and the liberation of women, queer people and the working class. Also, fetishism.

 

Who would play you in the film of your life?
Philip Seymour Hoffman, if he would still be with us.

 

Describe your art practice in 3 nouns.
Enthusiasm. Curiosity. Challenge.

I am questioning how identities, bodies and norms are co-constructed through genres and disciplines, materials and media, content and context in my multimedia works. In the field of art and design, I look to methods of humour, transformation and entanglement.

My first solo exhibition at Belmacz, London, is titled I am he as you are he as you are me. And we are all together – a line taken from I Am The Walrus (1967) by The Beatles. I am creating a “room of desire”, a general term describing my artistic tendencies towards scenographic pieces. Here, I have transformed into a Richard Lindner icon and merged with the aesthetics of the Yellow Submarine, together with my anthropomorphic soft sculptures, overlooked by Emmanuel the male muse (dressed in lingerie).

The dominant approach within my practice is to engage with art, design history and authorship, communicating with diverse audiences beyond art institutions.

Jakob Lena Knebl (b.1970, Baden, Austria). Her practice intersects the language of fashion with art historical argumentation; recent works have intervened with the compositions of other artists, historic and present, as well as playing with objects of contemporary European culture and otherwise.

Jakob Lena Knebl graduated from University of Applied Arts in Fashion Studies and the Akademie of Fine Art in Textual Sculpting, 2006. Recent solo exhibitions include Art on architecture, Townhall, Vienna (2019); O.T, Galerie Loevenbruck, Paris (2019); Fashion Drive, Kunsthaus Zürich (2018); Art Basel, Galerie Kargl (2018); Oh… Jakob Lena Knebl und die mumok Sammlung, Mumok, Vienna (2017); Die Sprache der Dinge, Material-geschichten aus der Sammlung, 21 Haus, Vienna (2016); Pavillion der Tiroler Künstlerschaft, Innsbruck (2014); An Eye on a Disposition of a Cloud, Salzburger Kunstverein, Salzburg (2013); KÖR, Memorial for gay, lesbian, transgender victims of nationalists, Morzinplatz, Vienna (2012). Recent group exhibitions include Biennale de Lyon, Lyon (2019); Mapping the Body, Taxis Palais, Innsbruck (2016); Gender jako dekomerowy performance, Galeria PF, Poznan, (2015); Look at me, Center of Contemporary Art, Torun (2014); Art from Vienna, CI Art Contemporary, Istanbul (2013); Erfinde dich selbst, Kunstverein Wolfsburg, Wolfsburg (2013); Reflecting Fashion, Mumok, Vienna (2012); Set Staged Envisioned, 308, 156 Project Artspace, New York (2012); home/work/dress, Centre d’àrt passerelle, Brest (2012); Beauty Contest, ACF, New York (2011); Transgression, Beers. Lambert Contemporary, London (2011); Wiener Glut, KIT, Düsseldorf (2011); in co-operation with Heimo Zobernig and Markus Hausleitner, Galerie Christian Nagel, Berlin (2010).