RELIQUIE WEIN4 - Spurensicherung Laa
installation, exhibition, performance
art-based research informed by geological fieldwork and embodiment
LAA-FORMATION - GRUND-FORMATION - MAILBERG-FORMATION - ERNSTBRUNN-FORMATION
opening: june 20 2026, 15.00-18.00 vernissage & dance performance
exhibition: june 20 - july 19
Kunsthaus Laa, Laa an der Thaya (Bürgerspitalgasse 1)
nagl～wintersberger (Markus Wintersberger & Andrea Nagl)
Stone becomes a relic, sediment a record, touch a method: Spurensicherung Laa opens a poetic space between geology, architecture, body, material, and digital artifact.
In this site-responsive research environment, the artist collective nagl∼wintersberger (Andrea Nagl & Markus Wintersberger) brings together visual art, geological inquiry, embodiment, performance, digital intervention, and installation. The project takes its point of departure from the geological formations around Laa an der Thaya, the historic Bürgerspital Chapel at Kunsthaus Laa, and the idea of the relic as a carrier of time, matter, memory, and identity.
Stones, sediments, salt, architectural traces, and scientific imagery are approached as fragile archives and speculative findings. Geological processes are not simply represented, but translated through matter itself into another scale. Saltwater, paper, sand, clay, stone, drying, touch, and time become more-than-human collaborators.
Emerging from field excursions, conversations with geologists, maps, field notes, and collected samples, the project unfolds through sedimentation drawings, evaporite protocols, evaporation bodies, sculptural arrangements, digital transformations, and performative images. Geological processes are treated as active forces and methods: sedimentation, crystallization, evaporation, pressure, erosion, and transformation.
Saltwater, paper, sand, clay, silt, stone, drying, touch, and time become more-than-human collaborators. The material acts, resists, records, and transforms; geological processes are translated through matter itself into another scale.
Field Notes
Fieldnotes I - Sediment, held in form
Fieldnotes II - Yielding, held in tension
Fieldnotes III - Weight, in balance
Fieldnotes IV - Ground, refusing to hold
Fieldnotes V - Material, in recurrence
Fieldnotes VI - Depth, without surface
Fieldnotes VII - Surface, in residue
Fieldnotes VIII - Sediment, in dispersion
Fieldnotes IX - Structure, beneath the surface
Studio research ongoing...
Between field research, material experimentation, embodied perception, and digital transformation, the project opens an expanded geological imagination: a fluid memory composed of stone, salt, sediment, skin, image, and code.
References
Dellmour, Rudolf, Harzhauser, Mathias (2012): The Iván Canyon, a large Miocene canyon in the Alpine-Carpathian Foredeep
Finger, Fritz, Riegler, Gudrun (1999): Der Thayabatholith und der kristalline Untergrund des Weinviertels
Hofmann, Thomas, Wimmer-Frey, Ingeborg: Geologischer Überblick des östlichen Weinviertels
Glaessner, Martin (1931): Geologische Studien in der äußeren Klippenzone. Jahrbuch der Geol. Bundesanstalt 1931
Klien, Arno, Roetzel, Reinhard (2009): Auf den Spuren der Urdonau im Raum Hollabrunn
Roetzel, Reinhard (2009): Erläuterungen zu Blatt 23 Hadres. Geologische Karte der Republik Österreich 1:50000
Malzer, Otto et al. (1993): III.4. Die Molassezone und deren Untergrund. In: Brix, Schulz (Hg.): Erdöl und Erdgas in Österreich.
Roetzel, Reinhard (Hg.) (1999): Arbeitstagung Geologische Bundesanstalt 1999 Retz-Hollbrunn. Geologische Karten ÖK 9 Retz und ÖK 22 Hollabrunn - Geogenes Naturraumpotential der Bezirke Horn und Hollabrunn.
Roetzel, Reinhard, Mandic, Oleg & Steininger Fritz (1999): Lithostratigraphie und Chronostratigraphie der tertiären Sedimente im westlichen Weinviertel und angrenzenden Waldviertel.
Rögl, Fred (1968): Die miozäne Foraminiferenfauna von Laa an der Thaya in der
Molassezone von Niederösterreich.
Rögl, F., Hofmann, Th., Zorn, I., Brzobohanty, R.& Stojaspal, F.: Die Typuslokalität der Laaer Serie. ÖGG-Exkursionsführer Nr. 17
Wessely, G.: Das autochthone Mesozoikum im weiteren und engeren Raum von Laa an der Thaya-Staatz. ÖGG-Exkursionsführer Nr. 17
