Flurina Sokoll. Art Award Art Association Graubünden 2019

The Art Award of the Art Association Graubünden 2019 goes to Flurina Sokoll (*1986, Chur). The new grant also includes, in addition to a solo show as part of the Annual Exhibition, the release of a comprehensive publication. The unconventional installations by the Graubünden artist take a critical look at a world of plenty and make room for questions on how to deal with the remains of our material culture. With acumen and deliberation Flurina Sokoll sheds light on our relationship to transience and sustainability.

Waste and scrap, defunct industrial sites or abandoned urban districts have become an emblem for a time, which is experiencing its own disintegration. The residual leftovers of our planet wither away without affiliation and are adrift in disorientation. In searching for a renewed ascription of meaningfulness they deliberately seek out Flurina Sokoll. Found objects such as glass vases, wooden boards, mirrors, panels of fabric, or radiators become the material and point of departure for her works. However, the artist leaves the objects largely unchanged and uses interventions sparingly. The artistic process shows itself rather in the relationships between the unchanged objects; in the moment in which she transfers the items into sculptural arrangements.

As a result an energy field develops, in which the objects become charged with shifted significance. The arrangement follows the intention of neutralising the history of the objects and thereby provides them with a new existence. In this way Sokoll draws us into a certain detachment from the work and manages to direct the focus towards its materiality and its newly won liberty. In the interplay between volatility and rebirth Florina Sokoll gives the objects a second life.

A richly illustrated catalogue issued by Edizioni Periferia with contributions by Damian Jurt and Stephan Kunz accompanies the exhibition.