POLYGRAPH translated from its Greek root means “writing much” and is the word for a lie detector, a machine that measures different physical reactions in people and records these graphically. Christian Schwarzwald also traces the meanings of handwriting and typeface, leading the onlooker into a walk-in world of images that are based on graphic formulations. In doing so, the proximity and distance that we necessarily need vis-à-vis images and language are explored to find out what we are able to see and understand at all.

The graphic structures, initials and notations give rise to extensive systems of images and all-over structures that encompass the entire space, temporarily transforming the KunstHaus. Lines, initials and codes have a very haptic quality and are experienced with a penetrating presence.

Drawing is the basis for everything for Christian Schwarzwald. While he draws, portraying and understanding the world become one. “When you take a pencil and draw a line across the paper from left to right, then you have a simple line. But you have also separated the sky from the earth and marked out a horizon. And you have created a picture of the world and at the same time noted where you stand in that world,” the artist says.

Christian Schwarzwald (born in 1971 in Salzburg) studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna and the School of Fine Arts in Athens. He lives and works in Berlin and Vienna. He has had a professorship at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna since 2017.

His installation works are exhibited internationally. Works by the artist can be found in numerous international collections, among these the Belvedere 21, the print gallery of the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, the Strabag collection in Vienna, the Museum der Moderne in Salzburg, Museum Liaunig in Kärnten and the Museum of Modern Art, New York.

Schwarzwald is represented in Berlin by Galerie Ebensperger.

POLYGRAPH is his first institutional solo exhibition in the regional capital.

A book about the artist is to be published as part of the exhibition.

Find more information on www.christianschwarzwald.net