Installation view with horns, pillow and drawing Methika, 2014, ink on paper, 70 × 100 cm; © Photo: Achim Kukulies

Room Service – vom Hotel in der Kunst und Künstlern im Hotel
Kunsthalle Baden Baden 21.3 to 22.6.2014

Almost all artistic media of expression serve Gabriela Oberkofler to formulate her artistic interest often in a regional context, rural peculiarities, history or superstition and thus make it the starting point for her narrative exhibitions. The title of her installation for the ROOM SERVICE exhibition at the Hotel Rathausglöckel, for example, refers to a superstitious belief in Baden that anyone knocking on a house door after dark will wake the witches. This is only exacerbated by saying ‘Come in’, thus bringing the witches into the house unexpectedly. In many exhibitions, often with poetic and allusive titles, she places animals, plants and village architecture at the centre of her artistic exploration. In room no. 8 in the Hotel Rathausglöckel, the bed is covered with numerous cushions on whose covers Oberkofler's figurative drawings have been printed. Small wooden sculptures are scattered around the room, while other drawings and prints hang framed on the wall. The hotel room can be rented for the entire duration of the exhibition. The hotel room can be rented for the entire duration of the exhibition. Guests can try their hand at a ‘witches’ kitchen": All sorts of objects and ingredients with which they can make their own ointments and remedies, e.g. against the evil eye and insomnia, for fertility and consciousness expansion. Oberkofler thus develops the idea of an alternative Black Forest image that contrasts with the idyll of Hans Thoma. If you hang the obligatory ‘Do not disturb’ sign on your room door after sunset, you can also be sure that no witches will disturb your hotel stay. 

Hendrik Bündge

Installation view with Schaf, mask on paper, 2014, Ast und Turm, carved lime wood, 2012, 5 × 5 × 15 cm; © Photo: Achim Kukulies

Installation view of the witch’s kitchen in the apothecary cabinet, with various utensils, Verstrickt!, knitting bobbins, man and woman, carved lime wood, 2012, drawing Wald, ink on paper, 2012, 21 × 30 cm; © Photo: Achim Kukulies

Installation view with belladonna, henbane, datura, opium poppy and valerian; © Photo: Achim Kukulies