Metaphors for technical progress: the Munich-based artist Albert Hien (*1956) became famous above all as a result of his expansive sculptures. The multifaceted quality of his early works is now being presented in the new photo book, Scultura Poetica, by the two-time participant in Documenta. It goes back to the thrilling beginnings, which start with the Grotteschi series, created in Rome in 1982-83, and extend up to the work group Tische (Tables) of 1987-88. We experience an adventurous spectrum of diverse motifs and topics, which progressively become involved in metamorphoses. At the centre of the frequently large-format sculptures and installations again and again stands the idea of technical progress, whose metaphors are exaggerated and taken ad absurdum.

Text in English and German.