Co-Curator
THE GYM (2022)
SoHo Studios Vienna
EXHIBITION | Anna Ehrenstein | Eisa Jocson | Elisabeth von Samsonow | Howardena Pindell | Karin Ferrari | Kubra Khademi | Mel Baggs | Philipp Muerling | Sophia Süßmilch | Suzanne Lacy | Thenjiwe Niki Nkosi | Tianzhuo Chen | VALIE EXPORT
PERFORMANCE | Faris Cuchi | Mzamo Nondlwana | Tamara Alegre | Marga Alfeirão | Cuba | Hyeji Nam | God’s Entertainment | Denise Palmieri | Myassa Kraitt | Geumhyung Jeong |
TRAINING | Fran Klein | Puti Kaisar Mihara | mirabella paidamwoyo* dziruni | Karin Cheng | Romy Kolb | Betül Seyma Küpeli | Roman Kettner | Samantha Petz | Maque Pereyra | Adil Embaby | Silke Grabinger | Songül Cinar | Ivy Monteiro | Ahmet Simsek | Ina Holub | Mr. Move it! | Marissa Lobo |
The Gym is a hybrid place that combines exhibition, trainings and performances and can be perceived as a counterproject to stereotypical body cultures, market-conforming standardization and other forms of neoliberal self-optimization. A diverse training program with Weekly Classes, extensive Sunday Sessions and Mental Workouts form the vibrant core of the project. Together with around 40 participating artists, trainers and performers, The Gym expands the range of motion of inclusive body politics and non-toxic fitness, strengthens the mind-muscle connection and offers resistance training for body, mind and soul. Pleasure included!
© Peter Mayer
The Gym trains our physical and mental capacity for resistance in the sense of a joyful activism. In their respective practices, the participating artists dive below the surface and search for strategies and logics of resistance in order to break up power structures, to disrupt and challenge mechanisms of perception. The artistic works understand protest as a bodily training program, take patriarchal and colonial body images apart, or play with elements from the fitness industry and question them in the context of a neoliberal understanding of spirituality.
© Peter Mayer
The Gym offers a variety of workouts with numerous training sessions. Weekly Classes stimulate the body through practices such as Calisthenics, Yoga, Pilates and Animal Flow, among others. Sunday Sessions offer intensive workshops as one-day formats from Yoggaton to Transformational Breathing, while Mental Workouts pump up the mind to expand capillaries and perspectives. No special prior experience is necessary. The trainings are designed to be both supportive and challenging for all, and anyone can participate.
© Peter Mayer
Curator Exhibition: Petra Poelzl
Curators Trainings & Performance: Betül Seyma Küpeli, Johannes Maile, mirabella paidamwoyo dziruni
Technical direction: Mathias Lenz
Assistant Production: Larry Meyer
Exhibition Setup: Lukas Klestil
PR: Paula Marschalek
Design: fertig design GbR Berlin
The Gym is a production of partner in crime.
