Sven Sachsalber
Mapping out an Artistic Practice: A Research project by Museion
Opening: 05.12.2025, 11:00
Museion presents Sven Sachsalber. Mapping out an Artistic Practice: A Research Project by Museion. The exhibition offers insight into the process behind the creation of the archive of South Tyrolean artist Sven Sachsalber (1987–2020). This multi-year research initiative was launched by Museion, funded by the German Culture Department of the Autonomous Province of Bolzano–South Tyrol, and developed in collaboration with BAU – Institute for Contemporary Art and Ecology and the artist’s family.
Carried out between 2021 and 2025, the research set out to reconstruct, inventory, and systematically map Sachsalber’s body of work and the artistic network surrounding it. Internationally recognised for his videos, editorial projects, paintings, and above all for his subtly poetic and often absurd performances, Sachsalber was closely supported by Museion from the earliest stages of his career. On the fifth anniversary of his passing, the museum honours his legacy by presenting the results of this extensive research and archival process in the spaces of Museion Passage.
Curated by BAU, the exhibition brings together archival materials, documents, interviews, and digitised works. The display unfolds through six thematic strands that emerged from more than thirty conversations with the artist’s friends, colleagues, and collaborators: art, body, time, books, home, and friendship. These themes open new perspectives on Sachsalber’s thinking and creative approach, accompanied by quotations, publications, and reproductions spanning his entire career.
The only artwork physically on view, and integral to the research project, is Max und Moritz (2019), a series of drawings created by Sachsalber in collaboration with Raymond Pettibon. Left unfinished, the series captures the dialogue between the two artists and reflects the vibrancy of the international artistic milieu in which Sachsalber was actively involved.
A timeline integrated into the exhibition design connects key biographical moments with the artist’s various living and working environments. A selection from the digital catalogue further allows visitors to explore online part of the more than 350 digitised works and materials.
For the exhibition, artist and mentor Othmar Prenner has created a graphic edition in homage to Sachsalber, available in a limited run at the Museion Shop. The exhibition and accompanying publication do not signal the conclusion of the research. Instead, they serve as moments of reflection and consolidation, opportunities to organise and deepen a process that will continue in the years and decades ahead. They help keep Sachsalber’s work alive and actively narrated, preventing it from receding into mere memory.
With this research project, Museion reaffirms its commitment to preserving and promoting the contemporary artistic heritage of the region, while fostering new readings and international connections.
For more information about the research project on Sven Sachsalber or to provide contributions useful to the research, please feel free to contact the project coordinator at the following email address: elena.bini@museion.it
Sven Sachsalber
Mapping out an Artistic Practice: A Research project by Museion
Museion Academy
Mapping out an Artistic Practice: A Research project by Museion
