This exhibition brings together my most recent attempts to reconcile the first and the second body; if the first body, our material, biological body, is our first dwelling, then the second is our built environment, which we have become part of and largely dependent upon. These works attempt to map and materialise the interactions between these two bodies. — Antony Gormley
Conceived for Villa Kast and responding to the context of this former family home, the exhibition Umwelt comprises sculptures from Antony Gormley’s recent investigations into living space, where the body is seen as a place rather than an object. As the title indicates, the works on view explore in drawing and sculpture the dynamics between the internal condition of the human body and its environment (‘Umwelt’), testing its boundaries and permeability.
![This exhibition presents, for the first time, a group of ‘Extended Strapworks’ that Gormley has developed over the last two...](https://artlogic-res.cloudinary.com/w_1400,h_1400,c_limit,f_auto,fl_lossy,q_auto:good/ws-ropac/usr/images/feature_panels/image/4162/ag_1811.jpg)
Implicate III, 2022
6 mm Corten steel
188.3 x 261.7 x 272.8 cm (74.13 x 103.03 x 107.4 in)
![In the exhibition, Gormley also presents works from his earlier series, including the ‘Blockworks’ and ‘Open Blockworks’, to illuminate the...](https://artlogic-res.cloudinary.com/w_1400,h_1400,c_limit,f_auto,fl_lossy,q_auto:good/ws-ropac/usr/images/feature_panels/image/4165/ag_1807.jpg)
Still II, 2021
Cast iron
183.8 x 36.1 x 36.4 cm (72.36 x 14.21 x 14.33 in)
![Outside, behind the villa and facing the Mirabell Gardens, is Run (2016). This large-scale work materialises the volume of a...](https://artlogic-res.cloudinary.com/w_1400,h_1400,c_limit,f_auto,fl_lossy,q_auto:good/ws-ropac/usr/images/feature_panels/image/4150/033_agsalzburg23installaion_300dpi_crop.jpg)
Run, 2016
Cast iron
277.5 x 318.6 x 421.8 cm (109.25 x 125.43 x 166.06 in)
![Antony Gormley’s ‘Strapworks’ (2018–19) highlight the artist’s preoccupation with structural and conceptual queries, specifically the shifting interrelation of inner and...](https://artlogic-res.cloudinary.com/w_1400,h_1400,c_limit,f_auto,fl_lossy,q_auto:good/ws-ropac/usr/images/feature_panels/image/4154/ag_1806_crop.jpg)
Antony Gormley’s ‘Strapworks’ (2018–19) highlight the artist’s preoccupation with structural and conceptual queries, specifically the shifting interrelation of inner and outer surfaces, as found in the Möbius strip or the Klein bottle. The dynamic between still object and moving viewer is activated with a line that appears to continually change as one’s perspective shifts.
The ‘Strapworks’ have evolved out of the ‘Open Blockworks’ series and the evolution from these works that still articulate body space in the form of rectangular cells is apparent in early works from this series.
Fold, 2020
8 mm stainless steel
170.5 x 58 x 42 cm (67.13 x 22.83 x 16.54 in)
![‘I wanted to open the body up,’ explains the artist about the creation of his series of ‘Open Blockworks’, which...](https://artlogic-res.cloudinary.com/w_1400,h_1400,c_limit,f_auto,fl_lossy,q_auto:good/ws-ropac/usr/images/feature_panels/image/4158/ag_1809.jpg)
Open Gauge II, 2021
8 mm Corten steel
197.9 x 51.9 x 31.8 cm (77.91 x 20.43 x 12.52 in)
![Carefully positioned throughout Umwelt are a number of Gormley’s drawings. In his essay for the exhibition catalogue, art historian Rye...](https://artlogic-res.cloudinary.com/w_1400,h_1400,c_limit,f_auto,fl_lossy,q_auto:good/ws-ropac/usr/images/feature_panels/image/4167/ag_1752_300dpi.jpg)
Plasma Pleroma, 2014
Carbon and casein on paper
28 x 38 cm (11.02 x 14.96 in)
![While the sculptures on the ground floor of the villa focus on individual bodies in space, the exhibition continues upstairs...](https://artlogic-res.cloudinary.com/w_1400,h_1400,c_limit,f_auto,fl_lossy,q_auto:good/ws-ropac/usr/exhibitions/images/feature_panels/4169/ag_1833_detail.jpg)
![While the sculptures on the ground floor of the villa focus on individual bodies in space, the exhibition continues upstairs...](https://artlogic-res.cloudinary.com/w_1400,h_1400,c_limit,f_auto,fl_lossy,q_auto:good/ws-ropac/usr/exhibitions/images/feature_panels/4169/ag_1833.jpg)
Tangle, 2022
8 mm Corten steel
187.3 x 56.2 x 53.3 cm (73.74 x 22.13 x 20.98 in)
![The most recent drawings in the exhibition are made with deliquescent inkcap mushrooms and show bodies caught as if in...](https://artlogic-res.cloudinary.com/w_1400,h_1400,c_limit,f_auto,fl_lossy,q_auto:good/ws-ropac/usr/images/feature_panels/image/4171/ag_1827_300dpi_2.jpg)
Hold I, 2022
Inkcap on paper
38.7 x 28 cm (15.24 x 11.02 in)