Incomplete Venuses, detours and functions is based on a fascination for an invisible underworld. Why do we know so little about the fertile ground just beneath our feet? The Venus figures in this presentation refer to similarities between excavated archaeological objects from different areas and times. Worldwide, these prehistoric Venuses have noticeable curved female shapes that seem to invoke a primal concept of fertility. Nobody knows what they really served for and whether they were made as art objects. Do they represent the origin of sculpture? In any case, they are inextricably linked to the (fertility of the) earth in which they were found. The artists use this earth as a substrate for their installation, but also as a breeding ground for the material of their glass Venus sculptures. Basic components – found objects, coloured ores and sand – contained in the soil were used by a glassblower following the instructions of the artists. Even today, the primal power of the Venus symbol appeals to us directly. The artists wonder whether the link to a matriarchal society is a historical or a prophetic perspective. With a focus on in-situ sculpture, the collective draws on the connection between man and the environment he inhabits. mountaincutters’ steel structures, glass elements, ceramics, fabrics and organic materials, as well as their poems and copper circuits form temporary ecosystems, in which energy is channelled between the human, the organic and the inanimate.
