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"After the Sugar - Processes of Transformation at the Border"
Kunstverein Eisenstadt at the Sugar Factory Siegendorf Opening: Sun, May 3, 2 pm with a tour by Sebastian Mikacs and Gabriele Sturm Location: Zuckerfabrik/ Sugar Factory Siegendorf Fabriksgasse 7011 Siegendorf / directions hier Exhibition: 03.05.-28.06.2026 Curated by: Barbara Holub Artists: Gabriele Sturm (in cooperation with Sebastian Mikacs), Ilona Németh, Catrin Bolt, transparadiso, Isa Rosenberger, Paul Busk, Linda Luse With Films by: Johannes Haider and Kolomann Watzek („Genesis einer Kunstfabrik“, 1995) Günter Welz („Bittersüße Erinnerungen. Die Zuckerindustrie im Burgenland“, 2015) For more information see Kunstverein Eisenstadt |
Sugar, once a luxury commodity, came from overseas plantations where slaves were forced to labour. It was only when Napoleon drastically restricted this early global trade from 1807 onwards with his ‘Continental Blockade’ that Europe began to produce sugar from beet. Sugar production began in Siegendorf in 1853. In 1988, the sweet smell of the beet harvest wafted over the landscape for the last time. Today, the conveyor belts have long since been dismantled and the site, with its listed buildings, awaits its future.
The artistic perspectives on the subject range from decommissioned sugar factories in what is now the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary (Ilona Németh) to coffee plantation work in Uganda (Catrin Bolt), and an artistic investigation of the sugar factory Siegendorf (Gabriele Sturm) or the transformation of the Enns sugar factory into the ‘Kulturfabrik’ (Isa Rosenberger). Paul Busk proposes a large mural, Linda Luse transforms a pile of beet, and transparadiso draws on ‘waste materials’ from sugar production.
The artistic perspectives on the subject range from decommissioned sugar factories in what is now the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary (Ilona Németh) to coffee plantation work in Uganda (Catrin Bolt), and an artistic investigation of the sugar factory Siegendorf (Gabriele Sturm) or the transformation of the Enns sugar factory into the ‘Kulturfabrik’ (Isa Rosenberger). Paul Busk proposes a large mural, Linda Luse transforms a pile of beet, and transparadiso draws on ‘waste materials’ from sugar production.
