'Venetians' by Pawel Althamer, 2013
Pawel Althamer, a polish artist of multiple media known for his willingness to alter his own state of mind and body for the exploration of deeper realms hidden within his own psyche, has completed his exhibition ‘venetians’ for the 55th Venice Biennale. working in collaboration with his father’s plastics manufacturing company, Almach, Althamer cast the faces and hands of local venetians in plastic before attaching them to bodies composed of extruded plastic ribbons. the resultant scene is a surreal portrait of Venice, whose life-size inhabitants are represented by their faces and hands and more abstract ghoulish bodies like lost souls, supporting his own assertion that ‘it is a major achievement to realize that the body is only a vehicle for the soul.’
'Venetians' by Pawel Althamer, 2013
Pawel Althamer, a polish artist of multiple media known for his willingness to alter his own state of mind and body for the exploration of deeper realms hidden within his own psyche, has completed his exhibition ‘venetians’ for the 55th Venice Biennale. working in collaboration with his father’s plastics manufacturing company, Almach, Althamer cast the faces and hands of local venetians in plastic before attaching them to bodies composed of extruded plastic ribbons. the resultant scene is a surreal portrait of Venice, whose life-size inhabitants are represented by their faces and hands and more abstract ghoulish bodies like lost souls, supporting his own assertion that ‘it is a major achievement to realize that the body is only a vehicle for the soul.’