The series “Stall” began in 2020 as a factual, photo-documentary
archive of traditional barn structures in Upper Styria and has been ongoing ever since. The conceptual approach lies in capturing
rural architecture in its clarity and functionality, and subsequently transforming it through manual image editing in Photoshop.
Each photograph is taken with exactly the same composition and framing in order to maintain documentary precision. Perspective
distortions are deliberately avoided so that the form and structure of the buildings remain visible in their purest, most
functional state. Over time, the project expanded to include barns from other regions closely connected to the biographies
of Brenner–Havelka–Plessl: Prad am Stilfserjoch (Trentino-South Tyrol, Italy), Brno (Moravia, Czech Republic), and the Murtal
(Upper Styria, Austria). This results in a personal, geographically rooted atlas of rural architecture in Central Europe.
The project is realized in collaboration with photographer Daniel Kindler, whose images serve as the foundation for the subsequent
visual
processing.
The editing of the photographs goes far beyond simple technical correction. It is a
conscious, manual intervention – an old-fashioned act of design, in which the forms of the barns are digitally altered by
hand. This process stands in contrast to the common use of artificial intelligence (AI) in contemporary image editing, which
could easily automate such tasks. By insisting on manual manipulation, the human creative act remains at the center of the
work. The editing process points to the relationship between humans and their environment – much like the physical, non-automated
labor on farms, where each step is determined by human effort. The exhibition very unintelligent work references
the tradition of New Objectivity and introduces, for the first time, the term Austrian Objectivity – an approach focused on
presenting things in their own “simplicity” and “beauty.” At the same time, the concept of objectivity is critically examined:
through exaggerated reduction and forced uniformity, it is driven to absurdity – until, in the end, all that remains is a
box.
Max Brenner uses the constant stream of images and information produced in various forms
by our society as his primary source of inspiration and channels this into the starting point for his works.
Nick
Havelka is a painter, printmaker and sculptor who conveys deeply personal insights in his paintings, sketches,
and drawings.
Michael Plessl focuses on the possibility of reint erpreting an idea
in its most concrete and pure form, in transforming it into the smallest form of comprehensible communication. Michael is
an alumnus of the Department of Site-Specific Art at the University of Applied Arts Vienna. The decisions presented here are
based on a clearly structured concept developed in close collaboration with the photographer Daniel Kindler.
Daniel
Kindler’s photographic work forms the essential visual foundation for the project and serves as the basis for further
artistic processing. His involvement ensures a coherent connection between the documentary origin of the images and their
subsequent conceptual transformation.
Together with Brenner-Havelka-Plessl, Kindler shapes the project’s visual and conceptual
identity, making this collaboration a core element of the work.
