Manufacturing Sentiment

Mark Barker, Angélique Heidler, Yein Lee, Nadim Vardag

Manufacturing Sentiment is an industry term, a sister to Consumer Sentiment: a survey of the anticipation of a given group of manufacturers. It could also be pronounced with different emphasis to imagine the production of sentiment itself; a euphemism for the culture industry.

The preserved neo-classical state rooms of the Albertina in Vienna are a series of similar reception lounges accessed via adjoining doors. Each room is a different colour, utilising shared textiles for furniture, curtains and walls. Thus, one walks through a sequence of distinct rooms: red room, blue room, yellow room, green room. Walking through these rooms the artist Patrick Lundberg observed in conversation that Vienna has a long history of soberly presenting emotional affect, he mentioned the analytic emotionality of Mozart.

I had the privilege of meeting a former clinical assistant to psychiatrist Viktor Frankl. We discussed meaning in life; that meaning is not a raw material, mined from experience. Rather, meaning is farmed - cultivated out of the field of experience or manufactured, assembled from the material of experience. It is a somewhat creative act, best achieved through forethought and careful contemplation of the materials to hand.

The title of the show re-uses Chomsky’s 80s blockbuster Manufacturing Consent. Manufacturing is used in both cases as a transitive verb: the making of consent or the making of sentiment, an immaterial economy of internal sensory systems. In the 80s it was presumed that aggressive mass-media consumption could manipulate a democratic citizen. Today as we are emotionally strip-mined by a deregulated media-technology complex this presumption of manipulation feels almost innocent. What remains open is whether we can still assemble meaning from the materials to hand.

Mark Barker (*1983, Hertfordshire, UK) produces drawings, paintings, photography, video, and sculpture. Across these mediums, synonyms between bodies and architecture are examined, how we inhabit space, and how space regulates us. Barker studied at the Slade School of Fine Art, London and has presented work at Between Bridges, Berlin and Kunsthalle Zürich among others. He currently has a solo exhibition at LC Queisser, Tbilisi. He lives and works in Berlin.

Angélique Heidler (*1992, Paris, FR) produces as an omnivorous consumer of content, absorbing and re-presenting painting histories, collage and found images and objects. She performs the potential of an expressive subject in the midst of the mediated deluge. Heidler studied at the Slade School of Fine Art, London and has presented work at Scherben, Berlin, Café des Glaces, Tonnerre, High Art, Paris and Weiss Falk, Zurich among others. In 2027 she will have a solo exhibition at Kebbel Villa, Schwandorf. She lives and works in Paris.

Yein Lee (*1988, Incheon, KR)  produces systems of becoming: bricolage and industrial processes abut and dissolve, the primordial genesis of the organic and mechanic. Movement is key through large scale sculptural installations extended through live performance. Lee studied at Hongik University, Seoul and Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna. She has presented work at the 15th Gwangju Biennale, Centre Culturel Suisse, Paris, Belvedere 21, Vienna, among others. She is a finalist for the prestigious Songeun Art Award 2026, Seoul. She lives and works in Vienna.

Nadim Vardag (*1980, Nuremberg, DE) produces sculptures, installations, drawings, prints and films. His practice analyses the process of perception, the emotional and intellectual experience of cultural artefacts and their potential through re-production, context and distribution. He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna and has presented work at Kunstmuseum St. Gallen, Georg Kargl Fine Arts, Vienna and Stations, Berlin among others. He was the recipient of the Otto Mauer Prize, Vienna in 2025. He will have an exhibition at lange winter, Leipzig in November 2026. He lives and works in Vienna.

Mark Barker appears courtesy of Shahin Zarinbal, Berlin. 

We are very happy to have joint openings with Croy Nielsen presenting Lukas Kaufmann's exhibition Garden in Hell (Parkring 4, 1010 Vienna) and Galerie Hubert Winter presenting James Lewis’ exhibition The Third House (Breite Gasse 17, 1070 Vienna).