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 in 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. ‘On one level, the human body can be understood as a closed system,’ states the artist, ‘but on another level, it is open to all the variables of its context. The question of where our bodies end and surroundings begin is an open question and leads to open work.’
