TRAFO

“The face is a portrait of the soul” in the words of Cicero, calling to mind the old ideal of making humankind’s glimmer of the divine, its dignity and greatness, visible in portraits. Horn’s pictures of faces are however far from being portraits. Dignity’s no longer a factor. The protagonists’ visages transform, turn increasingly into projection screens, sculptures. Rather than becoming simply caricatures of their selves, the human turns into an object. The more dangerous and extreme the treatment they undergo, the more the individual is diminished. The face becomes an allegory for existence.

(Katrin Feßler, translation: Steve Wilder)

Paul Horn (AT), born 1966, is an artist and filmmaker. He studied at Rhode Island School of Design, USA and at the Academy of Applied Arts, Vienna (with Maria Lassnig among others). He lives and works in Vienna and Linz, where he teaches at the University of Arts.