++++ They look cute, the small papier-mâché models which Tobias Putrih is showing at Frankensteiner Hof. Cute, fiddled and touching. But take care! Behind what seems to be improvised architectural models on a small-scale there is a massive conceptual superstructure.
Putrih, who was born in 1972 in Ljubljana, is interested in the relations between interior and exterior space in a social context. He involves himself over and over again with the world of cinema as somebody who engages critically with the role of the film theatre and the associated theories and utopias. There are quite a view of these. Robert Smithson has developed some, Friedrich Kiesler who will soon be honoured at Frankfurt’s MMK, Chris Marker and Herbert Bayer who worked with Bauhaus.
In an earlier series of works, Cinema Solution, Putrih implemented their theoretical ideas by putting them into practice by means of a model. His contribution to Manifesta is more concrete. Here, really existing Frankfurt Cinemas are put on a pedestal, the Berger, the Harmony and the Cineplex. But that can hardly be recognized. The small sculptures are not exact copies of their originals, but rather symbolize cinema in which people can leave reality to dip into a strange world. Viewed in this way, cinema is one of the great, generally accepted possibilities of escaping from our society.
Putrih takes up such thoughts when, for instance, he cuts up the white paper of the projection screens and scatters it on the inside of the models and there, where they are normally fitted, leaves a hole which allows a view into the distance.
That may all be very nobly thought out and justified, but the intellectual superstructure seems to be too large for the delicate papier-mâché models exhibited at Frankensteiner Hof. Their attractiveness lies rather in the sculptural autonomy of their first, immediate appearance.
Frankensteiner Hof, until 25 August. jdv