First Monograph: Birke Gorm

Published annually by Phileas, the First Monographs are intended to provide an overview of the work of the most promising Austrian and Austria-based artists and build international awareness of their practices. The series began in 2022 with photographer Sophie Thun, and continued in 2023 with Christian Kosmas Mayer.

We are pleased to announce the third monograph in the series, this time dedicated to artist Birke Gorm. Born in Hamburg in 1986, Gorm is a Danish-German sculptor based in Vienna whose materials are the flotsam and jetsam of everyday life: worn clothes, rusted screws, old jute bags and such like. Manipulating them with traditionally female forms of domestic labor, she invites us to look again at that which is often overlooked and challenges gender roles and notions of value and consumption.

The breadth of Gorm’s work is reflected in the variety of contributions to her monograph, with commissioned texts by curators Michelle Millar Fisher (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston) and Attilia Fattori Franchini, a new piece of writing by Danish novelist Jonas Eika, a conversation with fellow artist Hannah Heilmann, and documentation of Gorm’s studio by photographer Daniela Trost. Gorm has also selected a number of existing texts by authors and poets that have shaped her work and thinking.

The First Monographs are designed by Marie Artaker, and published in English in collaboration with DISTANZ.

Phileas—The Austrian Office for Contemporary Art supports artists, curators, galleries and institutions in Austria and works to strengthen their presence on the international landscape of contemporary art. Through long-term partnerships with museums, biennials and art institutions around the world, we enable the production and exhibition of new artworks and their donation to public collections.

Our exhibition space and office in Vienna provides a window into our international activities and a meeting place for public talks, screenings and performances. We maintain an Artist Library of exhibition catalogues and portfolios available for research and consultation.

We support the Austrian Pavilion at the Biennale di Venezia through a combination of fundraising, publishing and historical research, and are commissioners of the first Austrian Pavilion at the Gwangju Biennale, South Korea, in 2024. To complement these activities, we run an active Visitor Programme that invites international curators and critics to Austria throughout the year to visit artists' studios, galleries, museums and artist-run spaces. Founded ten years ago in 2014, Phileas—The Austrian Office for Contemporary Art is funded by the contributions of its private members and the Federal Ministry for Arts, Culture, the Civil Service and Sport.

For further information, please visit phileas.art or contact us at office@phileas.art.