We can discern in Klaus Scherübel's artistic activity something like a desire to question the language systems to which a work of art is subordinated and the discursive space within which it produces meaning. The "title" of the series Untitled (The Artist at Work) predisposes us to see the conventional image of the artist in the act of producing art in his studio. Instead, we see an individual in public places (at the library, at the movies, in a furniture store), engaged in activities with no precise goal. The "artist," to all appearances, seems to be absorbed in thought, and his activity thus suggests a slow pace, in contrast to the principles of a world of work determined by imperatives of performance, efficiency, and productivity. It is surprising to realize that none of the images, in itself, informs us about the identity of the individual or what he is doing. The information of which the images are deprived is inferred by the content of the captions (the signature, the title, and so on) and by the documentary form (suggested by the support and the pictures taken by photographers). Thus, we realize that the outside components are recorded in the reality of the work as material (discursive component) of the artistic activity. This strange mise en scène reminds us that the margin has as much importance as what it frames and that the meaning of a work does not exist independently of the protocols of visibility that enable it to appear.

Born in Austria in 1968, Klaus Scherübel now lives in Vienna. Among the exhibitions in which he has taken part are the photographic triennial (1996), at the Neue Galerie Graz, in Austria, The Appartment (1995-97) in collaboration with Marylène Negro, in France, The Century of Artistic Freedom (1998), at the Wiener Secession, in Austria, The best he could do at the moment (1998), at Galerie Erna Hécey, in Luxembourg, and more recently Mallarmé, Das Buch (2001), presented in a number of locales in Europe. His conceptual interventions, using various means and strategies (such as the use of a pseudonym) always redefine the status of the artwork, integrating it into a process in which the artist himself is indissociable.