Das Leben im Tal

The World Economic Forum classifies the current cost of living crisis as one of the major short-term risks for humanity. Despite a slight decline at present, inflation rates are expected to remain high globally. This has long been felt in everyday life - price increases have risen dramatically in almost all areas of life during the pandemic. The phenomenon of inflation is closely linked to that of inequality: while it does not really touch the wealthiest, the majority of society is directly affected – from a reduced quality of life to an existential threat. In the exhibition “Life in the Valley”, Jáno Möckel puts this complex topic in the context of individual experience. The starting point is the fragmentary staging of a supermarket using installation, sculpture and video. The artist is interested in how abstract socio-economic processes can be reflected in places, everyday objects and subtle gestures. The focus here is on the so-called stoop level – the area of the lower-selling shelves up to knee height, where the cheapest and essential goods are usually found in supermarkets. If prices rise, the gesture of bending down increases. Used and trimmed sales shelves reduced to the stoop level act as a display for a series of sculptures and thus define an unfavorable presentation height. The classic task of a pedestal, to literally and figuratively elevate the artwork, is reversed here: instead of an elevation, a place at the lowest level is emphasized. The sculptures mimic real and fictitious commodities, alienated by sculptural processes and transformed into new materials. A video installation picks up on the usual form in entrance areas, where monitors hanging from the ceiling demonstrate the functioning of the surveillance cameras. Recordings are shown from the stoop level. The viewer adopts a frog's-eye view and enters the deepest valley of the merchandise landscape, where rows of shelves pile up like canyons and dazzling ceiling lights become false suns. Installed above eye level, viewing direction and camera perspective merge. The Oberösterreichischer Kunstverein is showing Jáno Möckel's first institutional solo exhibition in Austria. The exhibition is a continuation of a multi-part exhibition series. The first part Talsohle – Der krumme Rücken was shown at Kunstverein Gastgarten in Hamburg in 2023.