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RELAX
MAK - Museum für Angewandte Kunst, Vienna 2022
RELAX, 2022
Christoph Meier, Ute Müller, Robert Schwarz, Lukas Stopczynski;
With performances by Philipp Quehenberger, Cantus Novus & Michaela Kisling
Over the years Christoph Meier, Ute Müller, Robert Schwarz, and Lukas Stopczynski have been creating to-scale, site-specific variations on the legendary architectural icon the Loos American Bar (also known as the Kärntner Bar and the American Bar), in various locations and using a range of materials. From episode to episode, the artists have broadened their repertoire of cross references and levels of abstraction pertaining to the Loos Bar’s interior, rendered almost infinitely expandable by its mirrored walls. RELAX takes the Loos Bar’s façade as point of departure: three beverage vending machines replace the three doorways of the well-known entrance portal, quoting the original façade to scale.
The lively atmosphere of the bar as social site and temporary counter-universe has almost completely disappeared or has been moved outside since the pandemic. The portal is transformed into a transit zone conjuring up a dystopian scenario: a bar without barkeepers, without guests or music, and nowhere to sit down. The self-service machines are the final link to the bar’s original function. The architecture is that of a transit zone, and interaction is reduced to that between human and machine.
The automats’ acoustically cranked up refrigeration units form an omnipresent body of sound in the otherwise deserted interior, cited only by a ceiling illuminated by fluorescent tubes with infinite mirroring. Every time a visitor uses one of the vending machines, the sound and lighting effects are intensified throughout the space, recalling the atmosphere of bar life in pre-pandemic times. Besides takeaway cocktails, bottle miniatures, and a special brand of American beer, the machines also dispense limited artists’ editions: a RELAX cigarette lighter, bar souvenirs such as ashtrays made of melted beer cans, and mixtapes from earlier Loos Bar projects.
(Fig.1-6)
Steel, glas, wood, plastic, aluminum, electric, paint, ice, alcohol, sound,
690 x 365 x 290 cm
Images: Gregor Titze
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