TBA21 Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary
About
Back
About
Who we are
The world we want to see
How we work
Our journey to regenerative practice
Partners
Awards and Recognitions
Press highlights
People
Exhibitions
TBA21–Academy
Back
TBA21–Academy
About
The Current
Meandering
Culturing the Deep Sea
OCEAN / UNI
Ocean Fellowship
Academy Exhibitions
Academy Events
Academy Commissions
Academy Residencies
Academy Radio
Collection
Back
Collection
About
Commissions
On view
Artists
Program
Publications
Archive
Back
Archive
MNTB Exhibitions
Ephemeropteræ
Performances
Commissions & Productions
TBA21 Sites - physical and digital
MNTB Madrid
Back
MNTB Madrid
MNTB Exhibitions
MNTB Public Program
Visit
Ocean Space Venice
C3A Córdoba
Back
C3A Córdoba
C3A Exhibitions
C3A Public Program
Visit
AHF Jamaica
Ocean-Archive.org
TBA21 on st_age
highlights es
Tarek Atoui. At-Tāriq
A Journey into the Rural Music Traditions of North Africa and the Arab World
Tarek Atoui. At-Tāriq | Public Program
Organismo | Art in Applied Critical Ecologies
Independent study program, Year One
Organismo | Public program
Independent study program, Year One
The Ecologies of Peace II
The Ecologies of Peace II - Winter Mediation program
Otras montañas las que andan sueltas bajo el agua
Exhibition at Ocean Space - Venice
Echoes of the Sanctuary
Webs of Water
An Online Activations Series
Becoming Ocean
TBA21–Academy’s Ocean Space Wins Flash Art Italia Award for Innovation and Sustainability
A first look at our 2025 exhibition program
Press

Imprint
Privacy
Accessibility
Newsletter

Instagram
Facebook
Twitter
Youtube
LinkedIn
EN
ES
Home
Menu

Isa Genzken
Empire Vampire III - 19, 2004

Installation view: THIS IS NOT FOR YOU. Sculptural Discourses, Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary, Vienna, Austria, 2006-2007
Photo: Michael Strasser, 2006 | © Bildrecht, Vienna 2017
Courtesy of Neugerriemschneider, Berlin
© Bildrecht, Vienna 2017 | Photo: Jens Ziehe
Courtesy of Neugerriemschneider, Berlin
© Bildrecht, Vienna 2017 | Photo: Jens Ziehe
Installation view: Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary. Collection as Aleph, Kunsthaus Graz, Austria, 2008
© Bildrecht, Vienna 2017 | Photo: Niki Lackner | Landesmuseum Joanneum
Isa Genzken
Collection

Plastic, metal, glass, fabric, lacquer, paper and wood
320 x 100 x 75 cm


The sculptures of Isa Genzken are fragile constructions, precise structures of unusual material combinations reflecting the ambient world and the instability of human existence. The everyday aesthetic is determined not only through the choice and combination of primarily non-artistic materials such as plastic, mirrors, umbrellas, dolls and pets, but also through the anti-monumental form of processing. With empire vampire III, and the series of works to which it belongs, Genzken creates a beguilingly beautiful and at the same time transcendental, bizarre scenery, whose cool accuracy is somewhat irritating; and which suspends any form of narrative although all elements seem familiar to the viewer. The sculpture turns an imaginary inner space to the outside, which is not fictitious and always shows a reference to the real - a moment of comparison, which can be measured to all other stagings in Genzken's theatre of the world.


*1948 in Bad Oldesloe, Germany I Living and working in Berlin, Germany
RELATED PROGRAM
Dalibor Chatrný
Krychle, 1976
Peter Fischli & David Weiss
Untitled, 1985
Isa Genzken
Wind (Michael), 2009
Isa Genzken
New Buildings for Berlin VI, 2013
Artists
Isa Genzken