May 27 - Aug 7, 2025
Bildraum 07, Vienna
curated by Esther Hladik
photography by Eva Kelety
Within Constellations
In the context of a critical post-humanist analysis, Bianca Phos examines the interplay of bodies, materials and technologies. In Within Constellations her sculptures, spatial installations and graphic series unfold at Bildraum 07 as socio-material assemblages and speculative archaeologies. Phos repeatedly allows time to seep into her works. Material poetics and artistic process intertwine to form zones of mimetic transformation, and it seems as if the works themselves are undergoing a kind of evolutionary development.
In the tension between technical precision and organic deviations, between aesthetic contour and fragility and in the reaction of the material - its yielding, resisting or collapsing - Bianca Phos negotiates dynamics that point beyond the purely physical. For example, the moment of drilling - formally realized in steel cylinders - not only penetrates into geological depths, but also opens up epistemic spaces. What comes to light when the material begins to make its own mark? Such articulated behavior is also revealed in the use of industrial abrasives - the silicates that are commonly used to remove surfaces under high pressure. This process culminates in the floating installation, a broken open system. Here, the material is in a state of uncertainty between the aggregates: sand and glass, originally identical, move to the center of an almost alchemical process that makes it possible to experience the transformation of materials in their elementary structure. The artist's deforming, cutting and piercing of the borosilicate glass vials and their disassembly into components leads to a new legibility - a fragmentary language that encompasses both desintegration and possibility.
Phos' sculptural and graphic works act as catalytic elements of a reflection on processes that are not only underway in nature, but also in social, cultural and political systems. With precise settings, she creates scenic arrangements that trace specific developments and power relations within our current transformation society. By playing with gravity, Phos makes tangible those forces that suggest profound upheavals - and initiate movements of thought. The materials are not only shaped, they shape themselves - they are emotionally charged actors within all the constellations created by Bianca Phos.
Text: Esther Hladik, 2025