Labour Chest

Birke Gorm
Labour Chest

STRABAG Kunstforum is pleased to announce the solo exhibition of Birke Gorm, the winner of a recognition prize of STRABAG Artaward International 2020.

WATCH THE ONLINE-OPENING via STRABAG Kunstforum's YouTube Channel
Anette Freudenberger, Director of Galerie der Stadt Schwaz and jury member of the STRABAG Artaward International 2020, talks to artist Birke Gorm about her exhibition.

The third exhibition, as part of STRABAG Artaward International 2020, presents a selection of recent and new works by Danish-born, Vienna based artist Birke Gorm.
Questioning identity through labour, Gorm expands the possibilities of making by operating within the realm of limited choices. The exhibition Labour Chest continues her interest in poveri materials associated with farming and rural activities by utilising used gunny sacks. Often employed to stock harvest seeds and grains, sacks are the ultimate container, storage, perhaps a belly or a womb. Revealing its past, the jute becomes like an epidermis full of scars and signs, created by the mended holes and patches. By portraying hens, intent on the act of pecking, Gorm drafts a parallel. On one side she directs our attention to the idea of the pecking order – the natural behaviour system in which each bird has a rank in the top-down hierarchy of the flock – on the other she highlights the act of picking, a humble and slow occupation historically connoted to female labour. Gender, labour, capitalism, and hierarchical systems of social organisation entangle, lingering between the natural and the industrial.
Attilia Fattori Franchini

Birke Gorm on video

Duration of the exhibition: 19.02.–19.03.2021

exhibition video

Visiting the exhibition is possible with prior notice at kunstforum@strabag.com (at the latest one day before) and in compliance with the safety measures for COVID-19 prevention (FFP2-mask, physical distancing).