Mark Dion
born in 1961 in New Bedford, Massachusetts, USA; lebt in New York, USA
Vivarium St. Marx, Vienna tiles, 2021
Set of 18 screenprinted ceramic tiles (15 x 15 x 1 cm), handmade box, book-binding linen, numbered, signed edition
14.9 × 14.9 x 0,7 cm
Acquisition evn collection 2022
Inv. No. 0463
American artist Mark Dion investigates nature and its representation as a cultural construct. The Vivarium St. Marx is a hybrid work combining sculpture and architecture that bridges biology and landscape design, art and the natural sciences. In the foyer of the Biology Center at the University of Vienna, a tree trunk removed from the building’s foundation rests within the self-contained greenhouse ecosystem. At once both dead and alive, its decomposition creates a new habitat for fungi, lichens, bacteria, and small insects. Images of the imagined inhabitants adorn the white tiles of the base area. The result is a living sculpture that changes daily, representing nature as a complex system of cycles and processes through the ongoing process of decay and renewal. At the same time, Mark Dion’s Vivarium St. Marx recalls the history of one of the world’s most significant biological research institutions. Built in the Prater as a publicly accessible exhibition aquarium for the 1873 Vienna World’s Fair, the Vivarium became a world-leading research institute for experimental biology by 1900. Following Austria’s annexation by Nazi Germany in 1938, the institute’s directors and founders were removed from office, persecuted, and in several cases murdered. In 1945, the Neo-Renaissance building burned down and was subsequently demolished. Vivarium St. Marx creates a connection between interior and exterior, evoking the past and present of scientific research and reminding us that the very process by which we make natural phenomena understandable is itself subject to economic and political ideologies.continue reading
Text: Fiona Liewehr & Salon für Kunstbuch, 2022
Translated with DeepL.com (free version)