Toy Factory

fine art print, object, audio/video installation, Hubert Blanz, 2024-25

Katharina Ehrl about the solo exhibition Spielwarenfabrik, Galerie Reinthaler, Vienna, 2024-25

Spielwarenfabrik

Katharina Ehrl

The term "toy factory" [Spielwarenfabrik] immediately conjures up associations with a place where colorful toys such as dolls, building blocks, or small cars are made to make children's eyes light up. The injection-molded frames that Hubert Blanz uses are also reminiscent of the familiar elements of model making. Many of us have spent hours disassembling tiny parts and then carefully assembling, painting, and emblazoning them into airplanes or other models according to the instructions. Although toys are generally associated with joy, light-heartedness and childlike imagination, these model airplanes were mainly military aircraft such as the Eurofighter or models from the First and Second World Wars, which then decorated children's rooms.

The injection-molded frames and the five catalog-like categories - figures, vehicles, airplanes, ships, and sci-fi - into which the exhibits are divided give a first hint at the actual level of meaning that Blanz is referring to with his work Spielwarenfabrik. The title of the series is a code name, once for the largest tank factory of the Second World War, but in this case for the arms industry itself, which is once again present in politics and the media in the wake of the current wars. In his work, Hubert Blanz is concerned with systems, and in the works exhibited here with the concept of systemic relevance, i.e. the importance of an institution, an industry, or a sector for the functioning of an entire system. During the coronavirus crisis, the health care sector was most often mentioned in connection with this term, but due to geopolitical conflicts, the defense industry is increasingly seen as systemically relevant.The ethical implications become particularly clear in Blanz's work when he compares the arms industry to a toy factory.

With the enlarged model components - we see, for example, the arm of a male soldier or the wing of a tornado - which in turn are filled with the small parts necessary to build the respective object, he questions the supposed harmlessness. The deliberate choice of the color green, which has an almost fluorescent effect, in combination with the black background and the existing image noise, is also reminiscent of night vision goggles or video games such as the Call of Duty series, in which the player takes on the role of a soldier. This can be interpreted as a commentary on today's reality of a society increasingly permeated by technology. In the realization of the models for the photographic works, shadow becomes light. Illumination as an essential component creates an additional dimension of perception. The interplay of the individual works in the series raises ethical and social questions about progress and technology.

Katharina Ehrl, curator and head of the photography and media art collection at the Museum der Moderne Salzburg