Florian Pumhösl
Florian Pumhösl wurde 1971 in Wien, Österreich, geboren. Von 1989 bis 1997 absolvierte er die Höhere Grafische Bundes-Lehr- und Versuchsanstalt, Wien, und von 1989 bis 1996 studierte er Grafik an der Universität (damals Hochschule) für angewandte Kunst in Wien, die er mit einem Diplom abschloss. Im Jahr 2000 wurde er mit dem Otto-Mauer-Preis ausgezeichnet. 2002 wurde ihm der CENTRAL-Preis des Kölner Kunstvereins und 2006 der Preis der Stadt Wien für Bildende Kunst verliehen. Im Jahr 2012 erhielt er den Teresa-Bulgarini-Preis. Der Künstler hat international an zahlreichen Groß- und Gruppenausstellungen teilgenommen, darunter 2001 Yokohama - International Triennale of Contemporary Art, Tokio, Japan, 2003 die 50. Biennale di Venezia, Italien, 2006 die 27. Bienal de São Paulo, Brasilien und 2007 die Documenta 12 in Kassel, Deutschland. Einzelausstellungen widmeten ihm unter anderem 2012/2013 Kunsthaus Bregenz, Österreich; 2010 Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Westfalen, Düsseldorf, Deutschland; 2008 Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Niederlande; 2005 Kunsthalle St. Gallen und 2004 Centre d'édition contemporaine, Genf, Schweiz; 2003 Kölnischer Kunstverein, Köln, Deutschland; 2000 Wiener Secession, Wien; und 1998 Salzburger Kunstverein, Salzburg, Österreich. Seit 2018 hat er eine Professur für Bildhauerei an der Akademie der Bildenden Künste, München, inne. Florian Pumhösl lebt und arbeitet in München und Wien.
Pumhösl develops his works from theoretical considerations relating to architecture, design, and the human being as a social entity. He is concerned with the influence exerted by industry and modern architecture on urban systems and the connection between architecture and power. From 1991 to 1993 he developed a series of joint projects with Dorit Margreiter and Mathias Poledna (among others) including "Material, Texte, Interviews" (1991), an effort to come to terms with the basic conditions of exhibitions of young art. He also created the installation "Impact" (1993) for the exhibition "KontextKunst" in Graz, Austria. At his first solo exhibition "Bürgerforum" (1993) in the Forum municipal park in Graz, Pumhösl focused on the relationship between direct democracy and architecture, using the example of the "Fensterrecht”"formulated by Friedensreich Hundertwasser, the rule that owners should be permitted to alter their windows in any fashion they like.
At the exhibition entitled "on or off earth" at the Graz Art Society (1996), he worked for the first time with reconstructed objects and concrete time references. The frame of reference being formulated here was situated between a critique of modernism, design, and architecture and their projection into economically disadvantaged regions, which was continued in the project and attendant publication "Covering the Room" (1998) - an analysis of the aesthetic vocabulary of thematic exhibitions. In the installation "Humanist and Ecological Republic" at the Vienna Secession (2000), Pumhösl took the arsenal of forms of modernist architecture back to its model types of representational forms. The series that followed were documentary video installations, such as "Lac Mantasoa / Madagascar" (2000), and "Design for a Space with More than One Video Projection, Kampala, Uganda" (2000), dealing with modernization projects in African nations. A close link exists between Pumhösl’s exhibition activities and his journalistic project, "montage" (ongoing since 1997), conceived as a cooperative platform for artists and authors. (Monika Vykoukal)