Opening: Rouven Dürr – Quader

At the exhibition opening Karl Wilhelm Krbavac Das Soloorchester will play from the cycle I Kiss the Sky for viola da gamba, electric guitar and computer-controlled extreme ensemble.

In the Ideal Case, Calm Arises

The attempt to approach a geometric form and, thus, the idea of an ideal form of a figure is usually preceded by an engagement with mathematical principles and the spatial relationships between objects, with the aim of giving visible expression to the striving for stability, order, and harmony.
However, if the form of the sculpture reflects a subjective state or individual perception, as we would suggest in the works of Rouven Dürr, then the perception of a cuboid, which serves here formally as a template for the objects, would correspond more to an abstract mathematical idea than to an expression of the primacy of experience—which we do not wish to assume.

For Rouven Dürr’s cuboids are not based on bold calculations; they are not rivals to our lived spatial relationships. They appear to us quite unperturbed, as objects at rest among other objects, not organic in themselves, but nevertheless co-defining the experienced place.
Were they pure cuboids, we would have nothing to observe, "because there is no invention of a form, and there is no invention of a form, as the object is merely a mould, a reproduction, a mere imprint of reality." * We would not be confronted with a concrete experience, but rather with a cast, a mould, or a reproduction of an anti-individualistic principle.

"Geometry only interests me in an uncomfortable way."
Here, we are reminded of geometric fever dreams, in which the clear lines and symmetries induce a sense of unease.
The source of this discomfort likely lies in the knowledge that these forms do not speak to human subjectivity. These eerily clear shapes in the physics-free zone of dream images simply do not correspond to the weight and fullness of the body.

The surfaces of these sculptures are, therefore, not smooth. The cuboids do not stand alone. Stacked and pressed together, always interconnected, they are intended not only to be seen but also to be engaged with and thus comprehended. Along the variety of textures, the hand, like a guide, directs the eye away from the immediacy of the visible form and towards the directly experienced content. In this way, we can momentarily reassure ourselves that we were present, that we have had the same experience.
And in the ideal case, it is precisely through this certainty that a moment of calm arises within us.

* Didi-Huberman, Georges: Ähnlichkeit und Berührung. Archäologie, Anachronismus und Modernität des Abdrucks. DuMont, Köln, 1997, p.11.

Rouven Dürr

Born in Vorarlberg in 1974
1992 Friedl Kubelka School for Artistic Photography in Vienna
1995–2000 studied Sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna with Bruno Gironcoli
2003 Studio grant for Chicago, bm:ukk
2010 Studio grant for Paliano, Italy, Cultural Department of Vorarlberg
2013 Artist in Residence, Hotel Hospiz, St. Christoph am Arlberg
2021 Public Art Commission, Weyregg am Attersee
www.rouvenduerr.at