Lives and works in Berlin (Germany)
Strict proportionality characterizes the installation Piazza del Cuore Sviato III (2018) by Stefan Knauf. Within one frame, the Berlin artist and designer Knauf has combined different materials in a geometric order: ribbed, mahogany-coloured wood, mirrored glass and red granite. The coolness and regularity of this combination is reminiscent of a classic-minimalist aesthetic, as well as the materials of modernist showcase architecture, such as the famous Barcelona Pavilion or the New National Gallery in Berlin by Mies van der Rohe. A polished brass rod attached to the glass by a clamp, a bit like a handrail, guides visitors into the room and connects the material assemblage to the floor of the exhibition space. Almost one hundred years after the founding of Bauhaus in Weimar by Walter Gropius, the discussion surrounding the legacy of modernism continues. Piazza plays with the modernist elegance of surfaces with relish – even if the associated cultural promises have never been fulfilled.
 
Piazza del Cuore Sviato III, 2018, Wood, brass, rosaline glass, granite on wood, 203 x 78 cm
Watzmann, 2022, hydroformed steel, 125x125