Michéle Pagel: Kicking Upwards – Crawling Downwards!

Just in time for her lecture Beyond Good and Evil? On the Political Relevance of the Personal, Michèle Pagel is presenting works in the exhibition space at Paulusplatz under the title Kicking Upwards – Crawling Downwards!. The works span different phases of her career but share one common feature: they do not shy away from substance, tackling issues of critical contemporary relevance with verve, humor, and artistic resistance against hollowed-out and diluted political discourse.
In contrast to the fleeting visual language of digital contemporary culture, she employs a vocabulary of bricks, ceramics, concrete, glass, and stone—materials and forms that speak loudly and clearly of her own persistence. Ethical and aesthetic, but with the middle finger rather than the wagging finger.

Michèle Pagel, born in 1985 in Werdau (former GDR), studied Fine Arts in Leipzig as well as Sculpture in Milan and Vienna, graduating in 2012 under Julian Göthe at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. Between 2009 and 2014 she taught sculptural ceramics in the program Plastic Concepts/Ceramics, and in 2023/2024 she was a visiting artist in the Sculpture/Transmedial Space class at the University of Art and Design Linz. Since the winter semester of 2025/2026, Pagel has also been teaching as a lecturer in the Sculpture and Space class at the University of Applied Arts Vienna. Her works can be seen across Europe in group and solo exhibitions, including at the Austrian Cultural Forum in Moscow and Berlin, the Startgalerie of MUSA Vienna, the MAK, and Galerie Meyer Kainer. Michèle Pagel lives and works in Vienna.

The exhibition can be visited during the opening, on 8 October, and during the finissage. The works are visible from the outside 24 hours a day. 

Opening 7 October 2025, 6–9 pm
Opening hours 8 October 2025, 4–6 pm
Finissage: 10 October 2025, 4–6 pm

info@skulpturinstitut.at
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Skulpturinstitut is a project by the department Scultpure and Space
Exhibition
Opening
07. October 2025, 18:00 - 21:00
Expositur Paulusplatz, Paulusplatz 5, 1030 Wien
Duration
08. October 2025 - 11. October 2025
Expositur Paulusplatz, Paulusplatz 5, 1030 Wien
Visiting hours
08. October 2025, 16:00 - 18:00
Expositur Paulusplatz, Paulusplatz 5, 1030 Wien
Finissage
10. October 2025, 16:00 - 18:00
Expositur Paulusplatz, Paulusplatz 5, 1030 Wien