Michael Printschler

Michael was born in Villach in 1968.

After an apprenticeship as a wood and stone sculptor, he studied sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts with Joannis Avramidis and Michelangelo Pistoletto. From 1996 to 2000, Michael Printschler participated and co-organised sculpture symposia in the Krastal Valley.

Since 1989, numerous solo and group exhibitions in the field of contemporary art in public space at home and abroad. Michael Printschler has served on the municipal council in Millstatt since 2003 and, in 2004, took over the artistic direction of the "Kulturinitiative Millstatt", which was founded in the same year. Initiator of the symposium "Art on the Mountain" in Zell am See together with Max Seibald.

"SECURITY OF HABIT" | Marble of "Krastal" (a valley in Carinthia) | high-grade steel | 2007

The reclining figure in Krastal Valley marble was created at the end of the 1990s and comes from a phase of work during which Michael Printschler implemented his concepts predominantly in figures.

Just as in his abstract sculptures today, the artist was already aiming at a socially relevant and socio-critical readability of his works at that time. The reclining figure is held down by a ring clad in stainless steel. The figure’s open head reveals the convolutions of its brain. A blindfold covers the eyes and makes it impossible for the figure to read the book in its hands. The individual motifs are transformed into symbols that impressively incorporate the real everyday world into the artwork.

"Geborgenheit der Gewohnheit" (The Security of Habit) addresses change in that the figure tries - apparently - to free itself from its fixation. It does not succeed, but actually, according to Michael Printschler, the figure lacks the will to change. We often feel comfortable in our habits. The blindfolds and the clutches prevent us from experiencing the new, from being open and breaking out to confront the unfamiliar. Perhaps only because we don't really want to? So, the other always remains the other and is not seen as a cultural and intellectual enrichment, but as an economic and socio-political threat.