In Taoism, the yin yang motif refers to the combination of two opposing forces and the resulting universal balance that is the basic principle of nature, human relationships and the universe. At the same time, in East-Central European thought, there are many contradictions: socialist architectural values in a capitalist world, the meeting of East and West, the romanticisation of Eastern Europeanism through aesthetics, the eclipse of our traditional values in a place steeped in tradition, the demolition of the iconic Café Urania near the Prater in Vienna.
Such irreconcilable and unjustifiable contradictions haunt Orwell’s world in 1984, with its perpetual battle between Oceania and Eurasia, its complete inversion of political messages in practice. The yin yang here in East-Central Europe remains rather a bittersweet concept of existence, <Sugar Saltz>, which brings both joy and sorrow, sweet and salty at the same time. A bittersweet existence is a way of coping, a tendency to find favourable conditions in an unfavourable world, but also a constant struggle between opposites.
In his work, Martin Chramosta brings together several worlds, in the process balancing his Western identity with his Eastern European roots. In his exhibition Zuckersalz, the mix of different forms, materials and compositions creates a harmonious unity. In the meeting of personal and public space, she subtly reaches back to the values of the past, in a world where a pseudo-nostalgic feeling is present in many of us for a long gone world we have not experienced.
Chramosta attempts to expand our perception of past and present, to bridge the gap between our time and the aesthetics of times gone by. He plays with the ornamental role of public art, by taking over the aesthetic world, he suggests that these forms have long since departed from their original function. The appropriation is also true of found objects: the chalice-shaped ruin of Café Urania in Vienna, which is on display in the exhibition space, carries a real piece of the past, and also a crystalline material: a new hybrid preparation, sugar mixed with salt – or Zuckersalz.
The meeting of natural and natural elements with raw, industrial material in these worn yet well-crafted works creates a sense of clarity, but also of confusion. He boldly employs the method of mirroring, through which he is able to shift the lived space, creating symmetry between the works, while reflecting on socialist aesthetics and the method of capitalist expropriation.