Bernhard Leitner's "SOUNDSPACESCULPTURE" Transforms Secession Vienna with 48-Channel Water Cube/Wall Waves
At the Secession in Vienna, Bernhard Leitner presents his solo exhibition titled "SOUNDSPACESCULPTURE," which showcases the debut of Water Cube/Wall Waves (2026). This 48-channel composition is installed in the Hauptraum, utilizing transparent PVC with speaker chassis and WAV players, while PVC tubes create horizontal water circles. An Austrian artist associated with the 1960s Paris light-and-kinetic art movement, Leitner remarked on the predominance of horizontal perception in daily hearing, contrasting it with the vertical, acoustic, and spiritual dimensions. The exhibition also features pastel boards that echo an Actionist drawing style akin to Arnulf Rainer. Leitner's 2023 catalogue raisonné, Sound Space Sculpture, describes the body as enveloped in a "sound spiral." The exhibition is set for 2026, though specific dates remain unannounced.
Key facts
- Bernhard Leitner's "SOUNDSPACESCULPTURE" is on view at Secession, Vienna, in 2026.
- The exhibition features Water Cube/Wall Waves (2026), a 48-channel composition in the Hauptraum.
- The installation uses speaker chassis and WAV players in transparent PVC, with wall waves of PVC tubes and loudspeakers.
- Leitner is an Austrian artist and pioneer of sound as living matter, influenced by 1960s Paris light-and-kinetic art.
- The show includes drawings with undulating signs in pastel, blue, and red, compared to Arnulf Rainer's Actionist approach.
- Leitner's catalogue raisonné Sound Space Sculpture was published in 2023.
- The Hauptraum previously hosted Cevdet Erek's Secession Ornamentation (2012) and Sarah Lucas and Gelatin's "NOB" (2014).
- Installation views are photographed by Iris Ranzinger, courtesy of Secession, Vienna.
Entities
Artists
- Bernhard Leitner
- Cevdet Erek
- Adolf Loos
- Arnulf Rainer
- Sarah Lucas
- Gelatin
- Marcel Duchamp
- Henri Lefebvre
- Arthur Schopenhauer
- Iris Ranzinger
Institutions
- Secession
- Verlag Fur Moderne Kunst Nurnberg
- Museum Haus Lange
- Blackwell
- ArtNews
Locations
- Vienna
- Austria
- Paris
- France
- Krefeld
- Germany
- Oxford
- United Kingdom
- Houston
- United States