SEARCHING ANYWHERE FOR EQUALITY SOMEWHERE
a project by Hannes Zebedin

More and more people are being forced to cover the cost of living day by day through their own initiative, whether legally or illegally. Gutting the cables of copper creates hollow spaces that for
me signify a metaphor for ways through life and strategies for living. Imagine the lives and future of those people whose survival depends on foraging from their immediate environment. If you compare copper theft with other kinds of theft according to economic rules, you will find out that it is one of the less lucrative thieving methods, because the effort is in no proportion to the yield. This is the very reason why the action is for me far more than merely a crime; it is an almost desperate survival method achieved by “harvesting” material from the nearby urban environment, which in turn reflects social actuality.

As time went by, I also started to procure larger sized cable sheaths and to collect them as an aggregate of different destinies. Since the material is stored in piles in scrap dealers’ yards, the idea took shape to build something sculptural or architectural with them, again an indicator of the present economic situation, which is also marked by lack of perspective, by finiteness.

For the show “searching anywhere for equality somewhere“ I developed three drawings with cable jackets, mounted directly on the wall, as well as three works related to spots I visited in 2019. In Livorno, Nova Gorica, and Vienna I was searching and collecting some cable jackets first, followed by the price evaluation of the withdrawn or stolen copper. Afterwards I was buying a piece of wood, related to the value of the missing copper, to make plinths where I was placing the cable jackets.

Hannes Zebedin (b.1976 Lienz, Austria) Zebedin’s practice explores political consciousness through the language of conceptual art and embraces a broad range of media including objects, installations, text works, performance and interventions in the public realm. Recent exhibitions include: Carico Massimo, Livorno, Italy (2017), New Center for Contemporary Art, Togliatti, Russia (2016). Kyiv Biennale, Kiew, Ukraine (2015) Edouard Malingue Gallery, Hong Kong (2015), 21erHaus, Vienna (2015), Museum of Bat Yam, Israel (2013) Kunsthalle St. Gallen (2011) Caguas, Puerto Rico (2011), Secession, Vienna (2009).

salvator rosa