“still…”
and its many meanings and uses. „still“ signaling quietness, „still“ continuing up to now, „still“ as nevertheless, in between, and “still” in use to say even more.
„…(a little life)“
There was no explicit, direct mention or reference to it in the text written by the curator of the group exhibition, Barbara Horvath. But when I read the exhibition title, I thought of the novel “A Little Life” by Hanya Yanagihara, written over ten years ago and still finding its way into the hands of adults and teenagers all over the world. It made me think of intimacy, emotion, closeness, and transitions.
At the very entrance, left side, portraying a moth, is Neven Allgeier’s framed photograph, Environment (2023). Mundane, soaked in light, introducing softness to the very high and very sterile-looking room of The Hall. Space is both theatrical and restrained. Since the year 1875, it has proudly stood as a studio and exhibition space for so many artists and continues to do so today.
At the center, a skeletal structure made out of pale metal framing is not fully functional; it looks as if the wall has been stripped of; architecture and a display device. On one of its sides, the faux white wall carries a long sequence of Neven Allgeier’s photographs. Environment (2022, 2023, 2025), Iraz (2023), and Melih (2023): idyllic rows of landscapes and portraits. Delicate flower, moment in the desert, sunrises and sunsets meeting each other, the figure posing on the coastline, edge of the swimming pool, close portrait of a young person illuminated by artificial light. If I were to narrow my eyes, I feel as if I would see only a quavering atmosphere.
Photo: Michael Strasser
Instead of conventional white walls, on the other side of the structure, paintings by Judith Eisler are presented within the metal grid, not hiding but highlighting it. Paintings Maria (standing) 2 (2026) and Night Walk (2019) are full of uncertainty, as if placed out of the movies. John in the Kitchen (2024), oil on canvas, an ode to the home video filmed by Andy Warhol, capturing his lover at the time, poet and performance artist John Giorno.
The faces and figures in her paintings are holding the image still, transmitting the sound of a break in life and film. Oddly, speaking of movement as well. Brush strokes in pale and peach oranges and fire reds follow a coherent palette in the whole exhibition and mirror themselves in the tinted glass in the works by Pakui Hardware.
Photo: Michael Strasser
The Lithuanian duo presents the sculptural works from the series The Host (2021/2025), part of the trilogy (Virtual Care, Absent Touch, and The Host), focusing on virtual care and telemedicine. Installation functions as the stage, three table-like structures made out of stainless steel, bearing the airy, otherworldly bodies covered in cascaded fabric. On top of their draped and latex-shaped surfaces rest small, intense, colored, and translucent objects in rounded shapes in blown glass resembling fruits or organs.
Suspended above the tables, metal arms extend from the wall, holding circular lenses of tinted glass. Examining the room, fragile and thin, but from far away, a scenography for a fictional place; surgical room or a window next to the altar. On the wall in between them is the zoomed-in photography print, The Host 6 (2021), an almost microscopic capture of the tweezers touching the artificial textured body. History and future of medicine: marriage of the body and technology.
„still (a little life)“, THE HALL. PART International Art Residency Austria, 2026. Photo: Michael Strasser
The exhibition deeply reflects on acts of looking in relation to efforts of feeling through orchestrated ambivalent movements. In still (a little life) bodies, in attendance and missing, gradually transform and move and finally become something else. The moment you breathe in and before you breathe out. Offer for the meeting ground of potentiality.
Exhibition: still(a little life)
With works by Judith Eisler, Neven Allgeier, and Pakui Hardware
Curated by: Barbara Horvath
Duration: 07 March – 11 April 2026
Venue: THE HALL. PART International Art Residency Austria,
Address and contact:
PART International Art Residency Austria
Meiereistraße 3 & 16, 1020 Vienna
Opening hours: Friday 1-6 PM | Saturday 12 AM- 5 PM | and by appointment: welcome@partresidency.at
Address and contact:
Part International Art Residency Austria
Meiereistraße 3, 1020 Vienna
www.partresidency.at, www.instagram.com/partresidency
