galerie michaela stock

Marko Zink’s solo exhibition at SPARK, titled „Ein Spiegel mit mir darin“ („A Mirror with Me in It),“ invites viewers on a photographic expedition. Inspired by Sarah Kirsch’s poetry collection of the same title, Zink delves into the deep waters of human experiences, dissecting memories and constructing realities. At the center of the exhibition booth the series „Inner Film,“ („inner movie“), which serves as a stage for his narrative photographs, guiding visitors through the entire presentation like a compass. In this work, Marko Zink autobiographically delves into his family history by depicting 24 handheld mirrors with staged portraits of his family. The underwater series „alles was sie sagen“ („everything they say“) focuses on portraits of renowned authors, including Sarah Kirsch, Ingeborg Bachmann, Thomas Bernhard, Paul Celan, Oscar Wilde and Sylvia Plath. They are presented in various ways, including in a tabula scalata that changes its perspective abruptly. The series explores the origins of language and emphasizes the fundamental role of literature and art. In the third cycle of works, exhibited on the left side, Zink showcases series focusing on the theme of the forest. The literary scholar Robert P. Harrison astutely observed that the forest mirrors the condition of culture. Over the centuries, culture has continually developed in opposition to the forest, yet paradoxically, it has always remained dependent on it. This concept is vividly visualized in Zink’s photographs, where he intricately intertwines the familiar and the eerie. Through the combination of seemingly incompatible elements, such as wallpapers on tree trunks or the fusion of humans and nature, Zink creates a surreal world where the boundaries between reality and fiction blur.

Born in Gaschurn, Austria, in 1975, Marko Zink studied under Ingo Springenschmid and subsequently attended the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, specifically the masterclasses of Art and Photography, Expanded Pictorial Space, and Art in Public Space as well as Performance under Eva Schlegel, Josephine Pryde, Franz Graf, Judith Huemer, Mona Hahn, and Matthias Herrmann. He completed his master’s degree at the School for Artistic Photography under Friedl Kubelka and another degree with distinction at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna under Carola Dertnig. Furthermore, he studied German, Journalism, and Art History at the University of Vienna with distinction. Marko Zink only takes analog photographs with natural lighting. The carrier material – analog film – is multiply boiled before exposure and, for some series, deliberately chemically and mechanically manipulated. This technique, which he developed, is his unique signature with high recognition value. He describes the resulting disintegration of the negatives as a purposeful conceptual process, calling into question the main criteria of photography as a bearer of memory and record. In his works, Zink reinterprets the subject of staged photography. On one hand, he gives the viewer the sense of having become an accidental witness to this “fleeting” moment. On the other, he restages the subjects as objects, and vice versa. Zink tinkers with reality. He assembles the ostensibly unrelated; he amalgamates. Thus, humans are coupled with animals, and humans with machines, humans with furniture, humans with nature. In his work series Swimmers, the human being is completely negated as a carrier of meaning, floating as an empty shell under water, while at the same time illustrating the origin of species.

galerie michaela stock, founded in 2008 in Vienna, stands as a dynamic cornerstone of contemporary art, particularly renowned for its emphasis on performance and conceptual art. Specializing in spotlighting artists from Austria and Central and Eastern Europe, the gallery presents a meticulously curated program spanning performance, photography, video, and film. Its mission extends beyond mere exhibition, aiming to foster a rich dialogue between artistic expression, contemporary theory, and literature, thereby challenging viewers to reimagine the very essence of artistic creation. The gallery’s prominence in the contemporary art scene in Vienna is evident through its diverse range of exhibitions and initiatives. Notable among these initiatives are the co-organization of the DOPUST performance festival in Vienna from 2015 to 2018, as well as the CAPTURE PERFORMANCE FOCUS festival in 2019. Additionally, during the COVID-19 crisis, the gallery launched SALON REAL / VIRTUAL, which bridged physical and digital art spaces, showcasing its adaptability and commitment to innovation. In 2023, Galerie Michaela Stock relocated from Schleifmühlgasse to Praterstrasse, marking a significant transition and signaling a new chapter for the gallery. This move underscores its dedication to cultural dialogue and the nurturing of emerging talents within the global art scene. Situated in the vibrant cultural hub of Vienna, the gallery continues to showcase cutting-edge works by both emerging and established artists, across various mediums.