Manfred Wakolbinger :
ORF Centre in St.Pölten

Since the 1980s Manfred Wakolbinger has continually engaged with sculptural forms that address and transform the body and space. At first glance the tall impressive sculpture in front of the ORF regional studio looks as if it had emerged from a futuristic film, bearing a resemblance to a biomorphic technoid figure. The distinctive dynamic character is the result of three leg-like limbs that support the body as well as of the curvaceous nature of the body in general. The sculpture, painted the colour of skin, belongs to the series of works Travellers and draws on the philosophical and spiritual notion of the body as discussed by, for instance, Friedrich Nietzsche, Maurice Merleau-Ponty or Gottfried Böhme. The approach concerned does not focus on the body's physical existence, i.e. the outer shell, but with its constantly altering "substance", representing the actual medium for communication with the world. Accordingly, the sculpture becomes the external form of an inner expression of the continually changing physical body. Receiver (a title which also pays homage to the TV studio) reflects in a fascinating manner on the theme of the human body beyond classical ideas such as those of harmony and entity, as well as issues relating to figurality and abstraction. In the charged arena between current biotechnology and genetic research the apparently antiquated notion of the body gains a new topical and artistic relevance.
(Carl Aigner)