GALERIE METRO

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June 28th - July 11th 2008
Opening Friday, June 27th, 7-10 pm

Galerie Metro is very pleased to present “Gone Tomorrow”, the first solo-exhibition by Markus Leitsch.

In his installations and videos Markus Leitsch is dealing with the mutual transformation and dependence of human being and technology, the desire for perfection and immortality we project on technology, as well as the monstrosities, resulting from it.
Our relation with technology reflects our relationship with ourselves. While Christian religion propagates salvation through faith in immortality, technology offers salvation through the hope, all functions of nature can be revealed and thus all its failures, which lead to pain, illness or death, can be corrected. In the first case infinity lies beyond the physical. In the second case infinity is aimed for within the physical existence. The mundane fortune through repression of age, illness and death, is extended with the help of technology, as far as possible.

Technology brought prosperity to the western world by transferring its deficits to other parts of the world and adopting the protective mechanisms of nature. On the other hand technology reduced the human body to a mere engine by optimizing it through exercise and surgery, artificial ventilation, nutrition and fertilization and soon the cloning for the fabrication of organ bags, which serve as a spare parts depot for human bodies. The body as an engine becomes an object, working almost independently from nature and falling into a narcissistic idling of self-preservation, because of a lack of experience with mutual dependencies.

The title „Gone Tomorrow“in this context refers to the promise of salvation offered by Christian religion. In permanent consumption the coming salvation gets redeemed and dissolved at the same time. The fugacity which is supposed to be surpassed by religion became absolute by consumerism and builds closed system, which constantly leaves itself behind and thereby renews itself.

The Austrian artist Markus Leitsch was born in Klagenfurt. He studied (with Peter Weibel) at the University for applied arts in Vienna.