Kunstraum Dornbirn presents HYLE, the first institutional solo exhibition in Austria by Michail Pirgelis (b. 1976, Essen). The Cologne-based artist, who grew up in Greece, has created a large-scale installation for the Kunstraum’s historic assembly hall. Hyle (Greek for matter or raw material) refers to Aristotle’s notion of unformed substance that gains meaning only in relation to morphe (form). Pirgelis explores this interplay by repurposing parts of decommissioned passenger aircraft — primarily sourced from aircraft graveyards in California’s Mojave Desert. Through sanding, polishing, and deliberate fragmentation, he transforms functional components such as fuselage panels and floor sections into abstract sculptures that retain traces of their industrial past while transcending their original purpose. The works engage with art-historical traditions of the readymade, Minimalism, and Postminimalism, yet resist their ideals of perfection and homogeneity.
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