SHORT INFO
VINKO NINO JAEGER is a visual artist, author, lecturer and active in adult education. His focus lies on performative wood sculpture, handwriting and photography - rooted in architecture, walking, philosophy and literature. He studied contextual painting and object sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, and philosophy and psychology at the University of Salzburg.
PHILOSOPHY
I am interested in the relationship of the bodies: between the human, animals and the trees. Relationship means transformation, metamorphosis.
In my work I move fluently between wood sculpture, writing, photography and applied arts. The creative process is a dialog between the body and the material. I see art as a part of our lifes.
The Hand
It has been proven that the interaction of hand and brain increases the ability to think, yet there is hardly anyone who writes anything by hand. I, for example, still write by hand, because otherwise I cannot recognize my music [...] Handwriting has disappeared from everyday life. It's a pity, because little else says so much about a person and leaves behind traces of contemporary witness.
Olga Neuwirth
Es ist erwiesen, dass das Zusammenwirken von Hand und Hirn das Denkvermögen steigert, dennoch gibt es kaum noch jemanden, der irgendetwas mit der Hand schreibt. Ich z.B. notiere noch immer per Hand, denn sonst erkenne ich meine Musik nicht [...] Die Hand schrift ist aus dem Alltag verschwunden. Schade, denn wenig sonst sagt so viel über einen Menschen aus und hinterlässt Spuren von Zeitzeugenschaft.
Olga Neuwirth
I work the wood exclusively by hand. Because of the use of hand tools I am close to the wood. This gives my body the opportunity to participate in the shaping
process and the surface design. The body communicates with the wood. The body inscribes itself into the wood. Vojtěch Volavka calls this process sculptural handwriting. This is how unique pieces are created. Pieces that are mor like individuals who get involved with their
counterpart.
On the Way
Studies of object sculpture with Julian Göthe and Pawel Althamer and contextual painting with Ashley Hans Scheirl at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, as well as wood restoration. Degree: Mag. art.
Studies of philosophy and psychology at the Paris Lodron University Salzburg. Degree: Mag. phil.
What Drives Me
ARTISTIC WORK FROM THE BODY, FOR THE BODY
I make body and spatial art. For example, I modify a house that is over 100 years old - with my body, by hand, without the use of electrically supported tools or machines. This physical way of working is about the body inscribing itself into the interior design, as abruptly as possible. The body writes itself into the material through its physical and mental movements. The body is involved in the process of shaping and surface design, the body's reflections are reflected in the shaped material, in the lived space.
This sculptural work also has a performative character, regardless of whether it is bound to the space or - in the sense of the german word origin of „Möbel“(furniture) is mobile, because only when one or more people perform with the works are they complete. All my works come from the body and are made for the body/bodies. Only through their use, in conversation, in being together with bodies, the artistic works become whole.
My work - in the sense of Aristotle - is about a poetry of the body, which finds its application in interior design (bound to the room e.g. wall drawing or mobile e.g. sound bodies), Nazi history (e.g. Fathomizing Memory) and the body's confrontation with its environment (e.g. Wildes Fleisch).
Most frequently used techniques: Wood and stone sculpture, photography, audio and video art, writing, performance.
Related bodies: George Nakashima, walking artists, Elisabeth von Samsonow, Jean Touret, Gregor Eichinger, Maria Lassnig, Wille Sundqvist, David Pye, Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, Roland Barthes, Ingeborg Bachmann, Elfriede Jelinek, Olga Neuwirth, Ashley Hans Scheirl.