Rainer Prohaska & Eva Gurmeth. Toy-kit architectures, 2008

During the Raumars residency in March 2008 Austrian Rainer Prohaska and Eva Grumeth will build temporary sculptures, called "Toy-Kit Architectures" in the public space. These sculptures, which can also be called modular architectural interferences, are built from prefabricated and already existing parts, inspired by component systems in toy format (Lego, Matador, Fischer technique).

Due to the common use of ladders that are attached to Rauma-houses, which is completely unknown in Austria, they will be one of the central elements of the sculptures. Other elements could be euro pallets, wheel barrows, wooden and aluminium poles, parts of scaffolds, bins, all kinds of chairs and plastic or aluminium tubes. These materials will be borrowed from the inhabitants of Rauma for the duration of the exhibition.

The constructions Rainer Prohaska uses in his works are always tightly connected to existing objects in the public space, like ladders attached to houses, electricity poles, bus stops, signs, trees or fences. The sculptures are built with clamping belts and cable straps, which serve as flexible liaison vehicles. The crucial difference to the component systems in toy format is the dimension of the elements and of the developed architecture.

After the exhibition, the "Toy-Kit Architectures" will disappear completely. The sculptures are divided into their individual parts, in order to be available for their original use or as a basis for other works. The only remaining traces of these objects are analogue photos and sketches as the documentation, which will be exhibited in Hamburg in June.


Rainer Prohaska was born in 1966 in Krems an der Donau, Austria. After working in the adult education, as a balloon pilot and commercial diver, he studied “Experimental Media Arts” and “Digital Art” at the University for Applied Arts in Vienna.
Rainer Prohaska works with "activated groups of people as a stylistic device", initiates participatory projects, performances, media art projects and experiments with temporary sculptures as architectural interferences. His biggest recent and current art works are “Toy-Kit Architectures”, “The ‘Z’-Boats” - a project on the river Danube, “Local/Food” - cooking performances, and “KRFTWRK” – a social-political mixed-media project. He presented his works in following selected locations: Project(OR) Art Fair / Rotterdam, Galeria Posibila / Bucharest, Kunstraum NOE / Vienna, EMAF / Osnabruck, Body Navigation Festival / St. Petersburg, STRP-Festival / Eindhoven, Takeawayfestival / London, Prix Ars Electronica - Honorary Mention / Linz, Kunstlerhaus / Vienna.
Details about his work and references: www.rainer-prohaska.net

Eva Grumeth was born in 1982 in Judenburg, Austria. She studied “Stage and Film Design” at the University for Applied Arts in Vienna / Austria in the class of Prof. Bernhard Kleber. After some years as a stage design assistant e.g. at schauspielfrankfurt / Frankfurt, Akademietheater and Rabenhof Theater / Vienna, Eva Grumeth started to work as a producer and set designer of contemporary art projects. 2003 – 2005 she worked with the artist group Cntrcpy and in 2005 she started to work with Rainer Prohaska. Since two years she has her own production and set-design platform called “Grundvier”. Currently she is et al. involved in the production and realisation of Rainer Prohaska’s works “Toy-Kit Architectures”, “The ‘Z’-Boats” and “Local/Food”, and organises a group exhibition.
Details about her work and references: www.grundvier.com