Raphael Pohl at Proyecto REME, Palma de Mallorca

“In the fall of ’95, Gezvila saw the sea for the first time. At the port of Kulevi. I learned from him during that time. He wanted to go back to you, to the tower block next to the river. Where he waited for the leaves of the tree to grow again, so he could see them. Now the day came when the first leaf appeared. He saw it and died the same evening. My letter never reached him, I still had something I wanted to show him. He sat there, as always, with his hand on his desk. I wanted to say something, I think. After that it was already March.“

Raphael Pohl, 2025

In this exhibition, Raphael Pohl brings together objects, images, and fragments of text from Georgia that circulate between states and dimensions. They appear as evanescent stories: never fully revealed, but sensed, like presences hovering just beyond reach. Not nostalgia, but time in suspension.

Fifteen sunflower stems, dried and recast in aluminum, draw a fragile line across the room: plants turned into infrastructure, hollow and light, yet able to bear weight. Containers with peppercorns and a suspended phrase mark a threshold; photographs exposed on aluminum sheets slowly dissolve; and a domestic cabinet, cast in metal, appears solid and estranged, as if torn from another life.

The installation remains tied to the text fragment: Gezvila waits for the fleeting moment of the first leaf of a tree. The work inhabits that tension in which renewal coincides with interruption, recognition with disappearance. An experience where time folds in on itself, and every presence is also a form of suspension.

About the artist

Raphael Pohl (Italy, 1998) lives and works in Vienna. He creates installations and object-based assemblages from found materials, exploring fragile constellations shaped by displacement, temporal shifts, and local conditions.

His work has been exhibited internationally, including at Museion Bolzano, Kunsthalle West, Neuer Kunstverein Wien, and 01 Gallery (USA), and he holds a diploma from the University of Applied Arts Vienna.