Opening: Saturday, 26 April, 6 pm
Introduction: Johan Nane Simonsen
Opening as part of: MAZE 2025
Labyrinth Kunstproduktion Wuk, 3-9pm
DISPLAY CABINET is an exhibition situation created in 2023 in the entrance area of FOTOGALERIE WIEN. Every six months, installations or interventions will take place in the space. The third intervention will be designed by the artist Jojo Gronostay.
The exhibition will be accompanied by a performance and a publication.
For his contribution to the DISPLAY CABINET at FOTOGALERIE WIEN, Jojo Gronostay examines transformation and contextual shifts of symbols.Three logo projectors cast a new, semi-abstract image into the space, composed of logos from the 1930s – a time of political and social upheaval, marked, much like today, by growing insecurity and the rise of right-wing movements.
Just as in the past, design elements such as reduced, hard-edged typography and geometric logos seem to be regaining prominence – whether in fashion, corporate identities, or graphic design. However, while these aesthetics were once tied to a specific historical context, today they often reappear detached from their original meaning.
The projectors used in this work originate from commercial spaces, typically found in low-cost retail environments such as mobile phone shops, discount stores, or fast-fashion outlets, where they project brand logos into public space, transforming it into a site of commercial influence. In the showcase, however, they themselves become artifacts of display.
Transfers, shifts in meaning, and hierarchies are central themes in Gronostay’s work. Which logos or symbols retain their power when removed from their original context, and which become meaningless? What happens when a marketing tool becomes an art object – and is there a point at which the mechanisms of advertising and art become indistinguishable?
Petra Noll-Hammerstiel