New
Leopold Kessler [2025] Engl.
Works in Public Space
Exhibition: Wien Museum musa September 11, 2025 – January 25, 2026
Year of release:
2025
ISBN: 978-3-95476-809-7
28.00 €
Including VAT, excluding shipping
Description
In his subversive and mostly unauthorized artistic interventions, Leopold Kessler (b. 1976) makes use of the infrastructure of public space. In the early stages of his practice, disguised in blue overalls, he laid electrical cables, restored safety notices, or tampered with traffic signs.Since 2015, Kessler's work has increasingly involved placing interactive machines in public space. These devices, which resemble the street furniture of a "smart city," invite passersby to physically engage with the art often without realizing it.
Published to mark Leopold Kessler's mid-career retrospective at the Wien Museum musa, this book goes beyond merely discussing his iconic works. The texts collected here offer, for the first time, a more comprehensive art historical contextualization that situates Kessler's practice at the meeting point of conceptual art, sculptural practice, and socio-political intervention.
With contributions by Gerd Sulzenbacher, Caroline Lillian Schopp, Vincent Weisl, and a conversation between Johan Hartle and Leopold Kessler.
Vincent Weisl
Alex Bradbury (de–en), Uli Nickel (en–de)
English/German
grafisches Büro, Vienna
Flexcover, 21 × 29 cm, 162 pages, 225 ills in colour
Gugler GmbH, Melk
DISTANZ Verlag