Anastasiya Yarovenko, a recipient of the 2015 Kunsthalle Wien Prize, makes work concerned with the body's relationship to societal structures, behaviors, and space. In her installation Mimicry at Kunsthalle Wien Karlsplatz, the Ukrainian-born artist assembled a selection of objects that don't represent any definitive state but that possess the potential to interact with the viewer or surroundings. These objects consist of collapsible and modular furniture-like elements, as well as seemingly nonfunctional sculptures made of light materials. All of these objects fit together into a single portable case, thus signaling mobility and transitory states. For Yarovenko, the fundamental meaning of “space” is in its potential to reproduce and connect various aspects of reality.
The Kunsthalle Wien Prize was established in 2002 and is awarded in collaboration with the University of Applied Arts Vienna and the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. Yarovenko is the joint recipient of the 2015 prize. Along with a color insert, this publication includes an essay on the artist's work by Hemma Schmutz, a conversation between the artist, Lucas Gehrmann, and Nicolaus Schafhausen, as well as forewords by Eva Bliminger and Schafhausen.
Copublished with Kunsthalle Wien and Academy of Fine Arts Vienna on the occasion of the exhibition “Preis der Kunsthalle Wien 2015,” November 27, 2015–January 17, 2016
