The photograph cycle entitled Im Kurhotel by Marko Zink comprises 40 analogue photographs taken between 2010/11 at the legendary Kurhotel in Schruns. This series is being shown for the first time at five locations in Austria (the Montafoner Museen in Schruns, a projection on the façade of the Kurhotel itself in Schruns, the Galerie Lisi Hämmerle in Bregenz, the Galerie Michaela Stock in Vienna, and the Künstlerhaus Wien), to coincide with the 2012 Month of Photography. The series is divided into four blocks – each with its own short story written by Marko Zink – and also presented as such.

This location with its untold stories was ideally suited for Marko Zink. He used it to create a series filled with irritating moments, the paradox of a decaying sanatorium where the “doctor” has become the patient. The result is a compilation of hidden images that encapsulate transience independently of the motif as a result of his special photographic technique. Here we see an arm poking out; over there, someone behind a curtain. The past of a glamorous bygone era briefly flashes before our eyes before dissolving in the sadness of dilapidation and the accumulation of bizarrely whimsical furniture. A fateful moment in Zink’s own life (…) may well have contributed to the intense melancholy that permeates this series. Vitality and death were very close to each other in the artistic concept – with reality unpinning the setting with ruthless force. Bettina Schulz

Marko Zink, *1975 in Gaschurn, Austria. Lives and works in Vienna.