In his solo exhibition Floating at Smolka Contemporary, Mario Kiesenhofer presents new works from his series »Treasure«, which was on view at the tresor of the Bank Austria Kunstforum Wien in 2023/24 and portrays the queer rave scene in Eastern Europe. For this exhibition, Kiesenhofer celebrates the queer community in Budapest and captures the techno beats with his camera. He shows gemstone-colored portraits of key figures in the Hungarian scene with shiny chrome frames that counter discriminatory narratives of il-liberal systems trhough a queer perspective. The exhibition title Floating refers to the precarious situation of queer people in Hungary and points out that their rights are constantly in limbo, as they are repeatedly threatened by political and social repression.
About the artist:
Mario Kiesenhofer (*1984, AT) lives and works in Vienna. He is concerned with the representation of queer spaces and communities. By combining digital recording and analog display techniques, his photographic objects combine different levels of perception and have both a physical and metaphysical effect.