Leo Zogmayer :
Sculpture For a Chapel in Krems-Stein

Leo Zogmayer’s new work may be interpreted as the result of a meditative process, but also as an experiment in making connections between bodies in spatial situations. A variety of connotations are encountered in this dialectical field of tension. On the one hand, there is the lack of movement and timelessness of large-scale masses and bodies, which remind one of archaic architectural scenes; on the other hand the ‘painted’ panels represent an experience of space which suggests a virtual, imaginary, spiritual and even a mystical space as a mental ambience of this architecture. The concrete motifs disappear and what remains is the intensive experience of empty space which, despite this emptiness – or precisely because of it – is filled with an intensity of feeling and of the power of imagination in the act of viewing. From this point of view, the art of Leo Zogmayer unfolds in the dialogue of a two-dimensional, almost architectonic sculpture that creates the effect of great physicality in physical space. The colourlessness of black monochromism evokes not only the weight of the volumes and the bodies, but also an endless, lightless space that lacks contour, yet which when viewed in its totality acquires an incomprehensible and cosmically transcendental dimension. This gives the work an almost sacral character and makes it appear like a work of spiritualised architecture. This impression is strengthened by the archetypal forms, which act as visual metaphors for eternity and timelessness. The incessant silence and motionlessness at times remind one of the ages of surviving sacral architecture.
(Lorand Hégyi)