Examining the process of work is a dominant concern for Austrian artist Katharina Gruzei. The series “Bodies of Work” focuses on the Linz shipyard ÖSWAG. Camera in hand Gruzei accompanied the construction of a large ferry over a period of two months. Man and machine are seen to be perfectly attuned to each other in the industrial production process. Gruzei views the “working body” in this context as a “site for the negotiation of the always topical discourse on the place accorded to work and the changes taking place within it”. The artist took photographs also at times when the shipyard was not in operation. As darkness settled on the premises and the noise of the machines died down, motifs began to appear in a different light altogether. The defamiliarized appearance of the scenery leads away from a specific segment of represented reality to novel aspects of time and space.The photographic impact of this series therefore goes far beyond a purely documentary approach.

Katharina Gruzei, *1983 in Klagenfurt, Austria. Lives and works in Linz and Vienna.