The gallery Lombardi—Kargl presented the second chapter of the project 17(Joy) conceived by Jen Kratochvil: Department Joy by Jack Hauser & Sabina Holzer, curated by Stella Rollig.

With Department JOY Hauser & Holzer install a performative sculpture through time, experimenting with formats of varying duration. The project unfolds across three announced events and a series of unannounced, spontaneous occurrences, within a setting that oscillates between work and workshop.

Photo: Kunst-Dokumentaion, Manuel Carreon Lopez. Department Joy, Vernissage. Performance: Miss Coochie träumt,
Sabina Holzer & Elena Peytchinska.

Hauser & Holzer approach garments as independent agents, objects as portals, and photographs as imprints of light. The space becomes a fault line of hybrid activities—a zone connected to a multiple “we.” It invites attention to the performance of things: their materiality, weight, and reflections of light, and explores dreams and visions of a community to come. What could kinship be, and how do we proceed and create together?

Through activations, the project connects with sensual time and sensual memory. Space opens between human and more-than-human actors—for pauses, shifting rhythms, and interruptions. Every visit is a performance. Every material performs.

Photo by the artists, Department Joy, Finissage.

Throughout the project, Hauser & Holzer collaborate with artist friends and colleagues—the “band”—who help shape an unfolding experience of joy in the unexpected. With vigilance, they nurture small gestures. The uncanny happens, as always, in between.

Photos: Kunst-Dokumentaion, Manuel Carreon Lopez. Department Joy, Vernissage. Performance: Make a wish by Miss Coochie aka Sabina Holzer.

colours stretched like hair 

spun from leaves

light bleeding through their veins
each in a different state of becoming

all pressing softly

against walls and stones

nothing stands on its own

everything leans and vibrates
[texts for the spaceship, Sabina Holzer]

Photos by the artists. Department Joy, Midisage.

objects as portals
instruments of communion
to draw nearer to another’s body,
leaving traces of skin,
saliva, and tears behind
clothes as agents
textures as thresholds
to become other
side to side
[texts for the spaceship, Sabina Holzer]

Photos by the artists. Department Joy, Vinissage.

The fabulous band was: Stella Rollig, Jeroen Peeters, Niamo Lattner, Alix Eynaudi, Jan Meartens, Anna Rocha, Krassimira Kruschkova, Philipp Gehmacher, WITHING aka: Emma Cocker, Laressa Dickey, Sabina Holzer,Ines Marita Schärer, Delphine Chapuis-Schmitz, Litó Walkey. And Elena Peytchinska, Iris Dittler, Esther Strauss, Susanne Müller, Claudia Heu, Elisabeth Flunger, Thomas Ballhausen, Øïsíη Ó Måηåčháïη, Karlheinz Essl, David Ender, Agnes Schneidewind.

Photos by the artists, Department Joy.

Photos by the artists, Department Joy. Performance: Weißer Paul Sernine, Jack Hauser.