Hans Schabus

Among Austrian artists, Hans Schabus is the master builder of the guild. Now, in his current exhibition, “Autopsy with Forklift,” he has placed a large object in the gallery that, from the outside, evokes a DIY aesthetic—one similar to his earlier space-within-a-space works, leaving the modular wood components and functional construction exposed. The representative character of the exterior view shifts, however, in the silver-toned inner space. Every Wednesday at 7:00 PM, the artist opens the doors of Café Hansi, positions himself behind the bar, and serves his guests. He offers Hansa beer, wine, water, and schnapps from drinking vessels he has made. The charm of this temporary bar does not consist only in that a gallery and an artwork are transformed into a hotspot. Rather, it shows that art and bar hangouts both derive from the genius of the place to the same degree. The president of the Vienna Secession, Herwig Kempinger, has already attested to this bar’s cult status and compared it to Adolf Loos’s famous American Bar in the heart of the city. (The reflective walls here nod to that venue.) In addition, Café Hansi is equipped with a small kitchen as well as a functioning bathroom. The drainpipe, which snakes through the gallery and the walls, is connected to the sewage system.

On the exterior walls of this social sculpture, Schabus has applied select pieces from his personal collection—assembled over many years—of placards, posters, and other gadgets containing his first name. One might smile when one reads the permutations of the word Hans, such as in the fairy tales Hansel and Gretel and Hans in Luck, or in the names of companies such as Junghans and Hansaplast, or in the star of Austrian pop Hansi Hinterseer.

Translated from German by Diana Reese.