If you have built castles in the air
Kunstraum KS Contemporary
Dörfl 18333 Kornberg bei Riegersburg, Austria
Nina Schuiki, Thomas Supper
If you have built castles in the air is an exhibition of Austrian artists Nina Schuiki and Thomas Supper, curated by Kollektiv Collective at KS Contemporary, as part of HochSommer festival. Exploring the potential of the exhibition as a medium to conjure and articulate spatial memory, this collaborative project imagines time made tangible through a dialogue between process- and material-led artistic practices.
Whether seemingly stable or undergoing transformation, the artworks on display incorporate time as a primary source material. Schuiki’s durational piece Wounds Itch (II) (2019/2026) is made from safety glass collected by the artist in different locations over the years. Traces of the sites it was found, exhibited and stored in, are now becoming one with the dust and with the miniscule particles of organic life from around the historical exhibition space, fragments of memories collectively unfolding on display.
Contemplating the different lifespans of materials on display – glass, wax, wick, charcoal dust, aluminium, steel, crops, wood, jute – the exhibition conjures a sense of temporal disorientation. Wicks untouched and metal charred, Schuiki and Supper accelerate, prolong and pause material cycles – an intervention that re-directs expectations around durability, fragility and purpose. The emerging artistic dialogue attests to the malleability of memory that defines the spaces we inhabit. Amidst these inversions, Supper’s Feldzeichnungen (2026) preserves an all too familiar timeline, as it chronicles the decay of corn plants – gathered in the fields surrounding the building – throughout the duration of the exhibition.
The history of the building that homes KS Contemporary today – as a barn, a henhouse, a storeroom, an artist’s studio – is an active participant in shaping the exhibition, uncontained in any given representation. Factual and speculative moments carry equal significance here and allude to oral traditions of storytelling that weave the cultural fabric of a given region. Detours, inaccuracies and gaps in recollections become as generative as the fixed chronicles, shaping the stories we know: organic, manifold, and time-tested.
The exhibition is supported by the Province of Styria (Culture, Europe, Sport), the Federal Ministry for Housing, Arts, Culture, Media and Sport, the Austrian Cultural Forum Berlin, the HochSommer Festival, and Neue Galerie Graz – Universalmuseum Joanneum.
For enquiries, contact us at info@kollektivcollective.com.
Nina Schuiki (1983, Graz) works with installation, sculpture and text in a conceptual and site-responsive manner and is currently based in Berlin. Through her context-related work, Schuiki creates various in-between spaces of perception that reveal far-reaching associations and convey emotions. With minimal gestures, she conjures spatial atmospheres and explores basic questions around individual and collective understanding of space. The artist holds a BA in Visual Arts from the University of Applied Arts, Vienna and an MA in Visual Arts from the University of the Arts, Berlin and received several grants and awards, including the Prize for Photography, City of Graz (2019); the Stiftung Kunstfonds grant, German Federal Cultural Foundation (2020); the Erste Bank MehrWert Art Award, City of Vienna (2021) and the Kunstwettbewerb Museumskarree, Museum der bildenden Künste Leipzig (2023). Schuki is also a participant of the Institute for Spatial Experiments, University of the Arts, Berlin (2014) and the ISCP – International Studio & Curatorial Programme in New York City by the Federal Chancellery of Austria (2022).
Previous solo exhibitions of Schuiki’s work were held at Art Cube Artists Studios (Jerusalem, 2019); Kunstverein Wilhelmshöhe, Ettlingen (2018); Gotische Halle, Graz (2017); ADA – Artistic Dynamic Association Vienna (2017); 36Project Cell, Vienna (2016); Ohla Art Space, Shanghai (2015); SOX and Berlin-Weekly, both Berlin (2014). Selected group exhibitions include Sanatorium Dr. Barner, Braunlage (2026); Kunsthaus Graz (2026); Kultum, Graz (2025); Museum der Bildenden Künste, Leipzig (2024); Kunstraum Steiermark, Graz (2024); Vienna Contemporary (2024); WIELS, Centre for Contemporary Art, Brussels (2024); Rotor, Graz (2024); Akademie Graz (2023); ExRotaprint, Berlin (2023); DXIX Projects, Los Angeles (2022); Austrian Cultural Forum, London (2022); Studio Jochen Hempel, Frankfurt am Main (2022); Akademie der Künste, Berlin (2021); NART, Narva (2021); Kultum; Kulturzentrum Minorit, both Graz (2021); Station, Berlin (2021); Kunstraum Super, Vienna (2018); Space Station Gallery, Beijing (2016); Künstlerhaus Balmoral, Bad Ems (2016); 1933 Contemporary, Shanghai (2015); MoBe, Berlin (2015); mumok, Museum Moderner Kunst, Stiftung Ludwig, Vienna (2015); Modern Art Museu, Addis Abeba (2014); Museum of Photography, Berlin (2013) and NAC Foundation, Rotterdam (2012); among others.
Thomas Supper (1994, Oberwart/Burgenland) lives between Vienna and Rohr im Burgenland and brings together various materials and approaches in the form of conceptual paintings, sculptures and installations. In his pursuit of subverting aesthetic and material systems, Supper experiments with processes of decay and transformation and reveals how form and matter can simultaneously dissolve and persist. Supper studied Transmedial Art at the University of Applied Arts Vienna and completed a semester abroad at the Chelsea College of Arts, London. From 2014 to 2024, he worked in the Art Foundry Loderer in Mühldorf bei Feldbach.
The artist’s work has previously been exhibited at Galerie Kandlhofer, Vienna (2025, 2021); ES49, Vienna (2024); Gerberhaus, Fehring (2024); Deichtorhallen Sammlung Falckenberg, Hamburg (2024); Klima Biennale Vienna (2024); Parallel Vienna (2023); Laurenz, Rohr im Burgenland (2023); Neue Galerie Graz, Universalmuseum Joanneum, Graz (2022); Kunstraum Steiermark, Graz (2022); Phileas Projects, Vienna (2022); brut nodwestbahnhof, Vienna (2022); DWDS_Die Wiedergeburt des Schaufensters, Bregenz & Vorarlberg (2022); Laurenz Space, Vienna (2021 & 2020); KS Room, Feldbach (2020) and Vienna Contemporary (2019), among others.
Kunstraum KS Contemporary
Dörfl 18333 Kornberg bei Riegersburg, Austria
Nina Schuiki, Thomas Supper
If you have built castles in the air is an exhibition of Austrian artists Nina Schuiki and Thomas Supper, curated by Kollektiv Collective at KS Contemporary, as part of HochSommer festival. Exploring the potential of the exhibition as a medium to conjure and articulate spatial memory, this collaborative project imagines time made tangible through a dialogue between process- and material-led artistic practices.
Whether seemingly stable or undergoing transformation, the artworks on display incorporate time as a primary source material. Schuiki’s durational piece Wounds Itch (II) (2019/2026) is made from safety glass collected by the artist in different locations over the years. Traces of the sites it was found, exhibited and stored in, are now becoming one with the dust and with the miniscule particles of organic life from around the historical exhibition space, fragments of memories collectively unfolding on display.
Contemplating the different lifespans of materials on display – glass, wax, wick, charcoal dust, aluminium, steel, crops, wood, jute – the exhibition conjures a sense of temporal disorientation. Wicks untouched and metal charred, Schuiki and Supper accelerate, prolong and pause material cycles – an intervention that re-directs expectations around durability, fragility and purpose. The emerging artistic dialogue attests to the malleability of memory that defines the spaces we inhabit. Amidst these inversions, Supper’s Feldzeichnungen (2026) preserves an all too familiar timeline, as it chronicles the decay of corn plants – gathered in the fields surrounding the building – throughout the duration of the exhibition.
The history of the building that homes KS Contemporary today – as a barn, a henhouse, a storeroom, an artist’s studio – is an active participant in shaping the exhibition, uncontained in any given representation. Factual and speculative moments carry equal significance here and allude to oral traditions of storytelling that weave the cultural fabric of a given region. Detours, inaccuracies and gaps in recollections become as generative as the fixed chronicles, shaping the stories we know: organic, manifold, and time-tested.
The exhibition is supported by the Province of Styria (Culture, Europe, Sport), the Federal Ministry for Housing, Arts, Culture, Media and Sport, the Austrian Cultural Forum Berlin, the HochSommer Festival, and Neue Galerie Graz – Universalmuseum Joanneum.
For enquiries, contact us at info@kollektivcollective.com.
Nina Schuiki (1983, Graz) works with installation, sculpture and text in a conceptual and site-responsive manner and is currently based in Berlin. Through her context-related work, Schuiki creates various in-between spaces of perception that reveal far-reaching associations and convey emotions. With minimal gestures, she conjures spatial atmospheres and explores basic questions around individual and collective understanding of space. The artist holds a BA in Visual Arts from the University of Applied Arts, Vienna and an MA in Visual Arts from the University of the Arts, Berlin and received several grants and awards, including the Prize for Photography, City of Graz (2019); the Stiftung Kunstfonds grant, German Federal Cultural Foundation (2020); the Erste Bank MehrWert Art Award, City of Vienna (2021) and the Kunstwettbewerb Museumskarree, Museum der bildenden Künste Leipzig (2023). Schuki is also a participant of the Institute for Spatial Experiments, University of the Arts, Berlin (2014) and the ISCP – International Studio & Curatorial Programme in New York City by the Federal Chancellery of Austria (2022).
Previous solo exhibitions of Schuiki’s work were held at Art Cube Artists Studios (Jerusalem, 2019); Kunstverein Wilhelmshöhe, Ettlingen (2018); Gotische Halle, Graz (2017); ADA – Artistic Dynamic Association Vienna (2017); 36Project Cell, Vienna (2016); Ohla Art Space, Shanghai (2015); SOX and Berlin-Weekly, both Berlin (2014). Selected group exhibitions include Sanatorium Dr. Barner, Braunlage (2026); Kunsthaus Graz (2026); Kultum, Graz (2025); Museum der Bildenden Künste, Leipzig (2024); Kunstraum Steiermark, Graz (2024); Vienna Contemporary (2024); WIELS, Centre for Contemporary Art, Brussels (2024); Rotor, Graz (2024); Akademie Graz (2023); ExRotaprint, Berlin (2023); DXIX Projects, Los Angeles (2022); Austrian Cultural Forum, London (2022); Studio Jochen Hempel, Frankfurt am Main (2022); Akademie der Künste, Berlin (2021); NART, Narva (2021); Kultum; Kulturzentrum Minorit, both Graz (2021); Station, Berlin (2021); Kunstraum Super, Vienna (2018); Space Station Gallery, Beijing (2016); Künstlerhaus Balmoral, Bad Ems (2016); 1933 Contemporary, Shanghai (2015); MoBe, Berlin (2015); mumok, Museum Moderner Kunst, Stiftung Ludwig, Vienna (2015); Modern Art Museu, Addis Abeba (2014); Museum of Photography, Berlin (2013) and NAC Foundation, Rotterdam (2012); among others.
Thomas Supper (1994, Oberwart/Burgenland) lives between Vienna and Rohr im Burgenland and brings together various materials and approaches in the form of conceptual paintings, sculptures and installations. In his pursuit of subverting aesthetic and material systems, Supper experiments with processes of decay and transformation and reveals how form and matter can simultaneously dissolve and persist. Supper studied Transmedial Art at the University of Applied Arts Vienna and completed a semester abroad at the Chelsea College of Arts, London. From 2014 to 2024, he worked in the Art Foundry Loderer in Mühldorf bei Feldbach.
The artist’s work has previously been exhibited at Galerie Kandlhofer, Vienna (2025, 2021); ES49, Vienna (2024); Gerberhaus, Fehring (2024); Deichtorhallen Sammlung Falckenberg, Hamburg (2024); Klima Biennale Vienna (2024); Parallel Vienna (2023); Laurenz, Rohr im Burgenland (2023); Neue Galerie Graz, Universalmuseum Joanneum, Graz (2022); Kunstraum Steiermark, Graz (2022); Phileas Projects, Vienna (2022); brut nodwestbahnhof, Vienna (2022); DWDS_Die Wiedergeburt des Schaufensters, Bregenz & Vorarlberg (2022); Laurenz Space, Vienna (2021 & 2020); KS Room, Feldbach (2020) and Vienna Contemporary (2019), among others.
31 July – 22 August 2026
Installation view: If you have built castles in the air (31 July 2026 - 22 August 2026), curated by Kollektiv Collective at Kunstraum KS Contemporary, Feldbach. Photography by Kilian Flitsch.
Installation view: If you have built castles in the air (31 July 2026 - 22 August 2026), curated by Kollektiv Collective at Kunstraum KS Contemporary, Feldbach. Photography by Kilian Flitsch.
Wounds Itch (II), 2019/2026, by Nina Schuiki, as part of If you have built castles in the air (31 July 2026 - 22 August 2026), curated by Kollektiv Collective at Kunstraum KS Contemporary, Feldbach. Photography by Kilian Flitsch.
I Fly Toward the Skies on Untamed Horses, 2026, by Nina Schuiki, as part of If you have built castles in the air (31 July 2026 - 22 August 2026), curated by Kollektiv Collective at Kunstraum KS Contemporary, Feldbach. Photography by Kilian Flitsch.
canvas rolls, MODULE (NO. 2 – NO. 5), 2021, by Thomas Supper, as part of If you have built castles in the air (31 July 2026 - 22 August 2026), curated by Kollektiv Collective at Kunstraum KS Contemporary, Feldbach. Photography by Kilian Flitsch.
Installation view: If you have built castles in the air (31 July 2026 - 22 August 2026), curated by Kollektiv Collective at Kunstraum KS Contemporary, Feldbach. Photography by Kilian Flitsch.
Wounds Itch (II), 2019/2026, by Nina Schuiki, as part of If you have built castles in the air (31 July 2026 - 22 August 2026), curated by Kollektiv Collective at Kunstraum KS Contemporary, Feldbach. Photography by Kilian Flitsch.
Installation view: If you have built castles in the air (31 July 2026 - 22 August 2026), curated by Kollektiv Collective at Kunstraum KS Contemporary, Feldbach. Photography by Kilian Flitsch.
Feldzeichnung, 2026, by Thomas Supper, as part of If you have built castles in the air (31 July 2026 - 22 August 2026), curated by Kollektiv Collective at Kunstraum KS Contemporary, Feldbach. Photography by Kilian Flitsch.