NO RUINS
Albert Mayr, Samuel Schaab, Mima Schwahn
Something has taken hold of Kunstverein Baden and is gradually spreading from within. Sculptural interventions are taking root in cracks and cavities, along radiators and beneath the roof, occupying weak points in the building’s fragile architecture and transforming it into a site of concentrations, deposits and slow growth. Steel, iron oxide, metal shavings, ceramics, neon tubes and cacti appear as different states of the same transformation. Geologically, technically and biologically, they act as new destructive forces.
NO RUINS does not depict a future state, but rather a present moment in which ruin, growth and reordering occur simultaneously — quietly, insidiously and seeping through the building's pores.
Translation: Katja Stecher
is a Vienna-based artist working at the intersection of sound, installation and media art. He studied graphic design at Höhere Graphische Bundes-Lehr- und Versuchsanstalt in Vienna and New Media at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna under Peter Kogler. Among his notable solo exhibitions are Air Condition (Tkalka Gallery, Maribor, 2026), LISTEN TO THE PICTURES (MARTINETZ, Cologne, 2023), MO Kunstpreis (Museum Ostwall, Dortmund, 2017), Orchestrated View (Neuer Kunstverein Wien, 2016) and The Jonny Hawaii Orchester (Künstlerhaus Graz, 2010). He has also participated in projects such as Genèse d’un Repas (Lichtekooi Artspace, Antwerp, 2025), Spring (Museumsquartier Wien, 2025), Sägezahn (Schauspielhaus Wien, 2023) OOrtreders Festival (Pelt, 2022) and DREAM MACHINE 3000 (Donaufestival, Krems, 2022).
studied Media Art under Bernhard Leitner and Erwin Wurm at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna, as well as Art and Media at the Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK). His works are situated between sculpture, light, sound and performance, taking a site-specific approach that consistently treats the space itself as the central object. His work has been exhibited at venues including Vienna Contemporary, Bank Austria Kunstforum Wien, Art Brussels, Monheim Triennale, Kunsthaus Mürzzuschlag, Friedrichshof Collection, mumok in Vienna and Herrenhausen Art Festival. He has also realised projects and collaborations for the Elevate Festival, the Venice Architecture Biennale, the Dumbo Arts Festival in New York, the Musikverein in Vienna, the Musiktheatertage Wien and the ImPulsTanz Festival. Since 2017, he has been curating the music and performance series SÄGEZAHN together with Jakob Suske. In 2022, he received the Federal Government's State Scholarship for the Visual Arts. That same year, his latest monograph Modification was published.
studied sculpture at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp, Belgium, and Critical Studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. Since 2023, she has been a teaching assistant in the class for Sculpture – Transmedial Space at the University of Art and Design Linz. In her work, she explores geological contexts, the histories of materials, and the relationship between human and geological timescales. A key part of her practice is the technique of stucco marble, using plaster, pigments and glue to create stone-like surfaces. This production process becomes an exploration of geological phenomena — balancing stability and change — in which natural forces and cultural interpretation intertwine.