Substrates of old Gardens, 2025
The exhibition presents works by Linda Luse and Philipp Hoelzgen, created during the Artist in Residence 2024 program at St. Virgil. At its core is an exploration of materials such as stone, earth and textiles, not as passive substances but as active elements that co-create worlds in which space, body and environment are constantly redefined by time, memory and transformation. The ecological environment appears here not as a neutral backdrop, but as a shared field where human and non human forces intersect. Through ceramic and photographic works, the artists trace these dynamics, uncovering sedimented stories and revealing forgotten scripts.The exhibition unfolds in the distinctive spaces of St. Virgil, a building designed by Wilhelm Holzbauer, whose communicative interiors and open structures embody the expressive architectural language of post modernism.
In her new ceramic series "Dry Pastures", Linda Luse explores the fragile and increasingly threatened relationship between human activity and ecological health, with a particular focus on soil as an essential foundation of life. Her work is based on intensive research and a conceptual engagement with the ecological consequences of interventions such as soil sealing, pollution and unsustainable land use. Soil, the most species rich habitat on earth, becomes a central metaphor in her work. Within its complex web of microorganisms and underground networks lies the basis for plant growth, nutrient cycles and functioning ecosystems. Yet this living space is increasingly degraded, depleted and overlooked.
Philipp Hoelzgen presents new works from his series "Silhouettes of Terraforming". The starting point is his observation of traditional shingle architecture in the Alpine region, which he studied during his residency at St. Virgil. His work examines how human construction not only shapes the environment but also transforms social reality. Here, architecture is understood not merely as a functional system but as an expression of ideologies, transience and bodily presence. Drawing on Alpine shingle houses, whose wooden facades turn silvery over time, Hoelzgen has created a series of photographic sculptures and costume like objects. Analog photographic paper becomes a material that, like shingles, responds to light, moisture and time.
17 September –9 November 2025, Kunstraum St. Virgil, Salzburg with Linda Luse
curated by Andrea Lehner-Hagwood
curated by Andrea Lehner-Hagwood
Caeramics by Linda Luse