Gelitin creates situations where people interact with one another, humorously abandoning decorum, and shares relational art’s interest in constructing a convivial public space. Their practice embraces childlike excess and employs elements such as heat and water, or changes in speed and scale, to produce physical effects that radically alter participants’ perception. Although Gelitin often works on a large scale and the very shapes of the objects produced, it would be a mistake to primarily discuss their work using an architectural language and worldview. What they do may look like “building,” but can be better described as “making” (a key distinction and even opposition). The entities that resemble architectural structures remain works of art, free from the pragmatic pressure of adding up or otherwise making sense as objects of everyday social use.

The Austrian collective Gelitin is composed of four artists (Wolfgang Gantner, Ali Janka, Florian Reither and Tobias Urban), who first met at summer camp in 1978. Since 1993, they have been working together and taking part in international exhibitions.