The artist Marlene Heidinger, currently in residence at INSTITUTO in Porto, presents an installation that questions the ways in which art is presented and how these modes of presentation reflect the hierarchies of value within society. Her work foregrounds the conditions surrounding the production of an object, shifting attention from the finished piece to the labour and care embedded in its making.

At the centre of her practice is the juxtaposition of painting and embroidery as two modes of artistic production with distinct temporal, material, and symbolic economies. In an art world that continually “produces” and consumes ever-increasing numbers of artists and artworks, Marlene approaches embroidery as a radically slowed-down practice.

Marlene Heidinger (1996, Vienna) is a painter, curator, and filmmaker based in Vienna, Austria. She studied painting and experimental animation at the University of Applied Arts Vienna and at the École de Communication Visuelle in Paris. She completed a master’s degree in Curatorial Studies (“/ecm”) at the University of Applied Arts Vienna. Her master’s thesis, When Artists Curate: From the Studio to the Exhibition Space, explored curatorial strategies developed by artists, with particular attention to the use of the studio as an exhibition space.