Greece – Athenes
The Paris-based Austrian designer brings together food, art and design in his whimsical OMG-GMO collection. Stadler, whose work also includes installations and performances, creates an interesting parallel with the age-old process of agricultural domestication, selective breeding and bioengineering.
He examines the relationship between man and his environment through genetic manipulation, bringing to light the artificial form of the fruits and vegetables we grow and eat. Engineering that has become “far more extreme” in recent years. As the Carwan Gallery, which represents him, puts it, it has incorporated sophisticated cultivation techniques that give them “an almost artificial perfection and symmetry (calibrated cherries, square watermelons, straight cucumbers…)”.
Robert Stadler borrows these modified forms with ten humorous ceramic objects, hand-painted and textured by the Italian company Bitossi Ceramiche.
The organic is then transformed into something structural and functional: “The rectangular watermelon slice becomes a stool, while the zucchini folds into an L shape to create a set of shelves”, punctuates the gallery, “For their part, the wheel-shaped eggplants support a glass coffee table in reference to Gae Aulenti’s Tavolo con ruote.” After the Fuorisalone in Milan last April, the OMG-GMO series will be exhibited this summer in Piraeus, in the centre of Athens, in the Carwan Gallery’s flagship space.
« Robert Stadler: OMG-GMO »
Carwan Gallery
Polidefkous 39, Pirée (Grèce)
Until 16th septembre 2023