Mahler Forum

Intervention

Schmale Bottle
A sculpture by Toni Schmale
Curated by Felicitas Thun-Hohenstein and section.a

What does it mean do unfold a surface that is considered indistinguishable in mathematics? The Klein bottle, described by Felix Klein in 1881, is a non-orientable surface that defies differentiation between inside and outside. It is an object that speaks the language of topology: a language in which boundaries blur and categories dissolve. The Klein bottle challenges us because it annuls familiar orders—inside/outside, subject/object. It is a paradox that invites us to question our alleged knowledge.

The Schmale Bottle by Toni Schmale resorts to Klein’s figure and interferes with it. With a well-directed gesture, Toni Schmale cuts off the tube inside the Klein bottle and pulls it out: a cut, an opening—an act that reinstates a discriminable world from mathematical indistinguishability. Suddenly, inside and outside, two sides, orientation have been restored. The sculpture becomes a thought model: it shows us how easily a paradox can be transformed into something that can be grasped—and how deeply we long for clarity, even if it is but constructed.
Yet mathematics remains as a trace. The drawn border reminds us of the fact that it is artificially made—not actually necessary, but a decision, a cut, a formulation. The Schmale Bottle reveals that every distinction is an act—and that the indistinguishable continues to exist as a possibility, underneath the surface, ready to reappear.

This topological displacement extends to the spatial setting: the Schmale Bottle is deliberately placed in front of Gustav Mahler’s Composing Hut. A relational space is thus created between the forest and the hut. Here, the sculpture does not only function as an object, but also as a player—a visitor marking thresholds and posing questions in terms of belonging, place, and connections. At the same time, it negotiates limits, tries out transitions, and makes relations visible. The sculpture thus becomes a thought model of relating—between bodies, spaces, ages, and meanings.

On Saturday, June 14, 2025, Toni Schmale’s sculpture will be supplemented by an intervention conceived by Wally Salner and entitled Clusterfuck Experimental Sound Performance for Electric Violin by Tony Wagner with Schmale Bottle in an Afterhour Setting by Wally Salner. The site will be the surroundings of a one-person tent placed in the space between the Schmale Bottle and Mahler’s historic hut like a temporary fold. What will unfold is a twenty-minute sound dialogue: an electric violin, connected to effect units, will meet the metal sculpture and the acoustics of the forest—technology and nature, resonance and interference will be negotiated in real time.

Tony Wagner’s performance understands listening as a pro-active practice of establishing a relationship: sounds are not only produced, but they can also be experienced as relations between body, material, space, and surroundings. The audience is invited to inscribe itself in this field of action—not only as passive listeners but also as participants in a process in which the lines between inside and outside, between work of art and environment are redrawn and shifted time and again.
In the sense of this year’s Mahler Forum theme The Sound of Listening, listening becomes a political and aesthetic gesture here: it means to become aware of what takes place between things, on the fringes, on the thresholds. The performance allows us to experience that listening is not only perception, but also relation—a form of orientation in a space whose topology constantly shifts. In this way, Clusterfuck Experimental Sound Performance for Electric Violin by Tony Wagner with Schmale Bottle in an Afterhour Setting by Wally Salner becomes the soundtrack of a place where mathematics, sculpture, history, and the present, human and non-human enter into a shared and open field of listening.


June 14 – October 31, 2025
Toni Schmale
Schmale Bottle, 2025
Hot-dip galvanized chased metal sheet and tubular steel
Length: 250 cm, width: 110 cm, height: 90 cm
Realized in cooperation with Bartholomäus Kinner


June 14, 11.00 am
Clusterfuck Experimental Sound Performance for Electric Violin by Tony Wagner with Schmale Bottle in an Afterhour Setting by Wally Salner

Commissioned Composition

powered by Kelag

Commissioning a composition is a central and vital feature of the Mahler Forum. This tradition of promoting young talent has continued in 2025: The composer Tinkara Zupan—a promising voice from the composition class of Prof. Dr. Hakan Ulus at the Gustav Mahler Private University—was asked to write a new work. The general parameters provide for a composition for a maximum of eight instruments and eight voices. The world premiere will take place on June 13, 2025 within the framework of the Mahler Forum under the direction of Alja Klemenc.

The Stories of Our People (2025)
A composition by Tinkara Zupan for two sopranos and ensemble (flute, clarinet, horn, trumpet, harp, accordion, percussion, viola, cello, double bass), based on a poem the composer wrote herself

The Stories of Our People

The existential struggle of light.
Trembling body, woken up by explosions.
We’re dead
and yet we share the same breath.

Our home is a war
inherited from our ancestors.
Earth is a fine place—
on fire, on fire, on fire, on fire!
Assaulted nature and human life
devalued to a statistic:
a period of consequences.

Hugged by the ocean,
yet thirsty.
Serving lies to our children,
yet hungry.

The real evil is world’s inaction.
Wounds filled with dirt and gravel.
With pieces of glass and metal.
There is no plan B.
The dead tissue needs to be removed.

Listen to the stories of our people.
To the hope of staying alive.
It’s worth fighting for.


Delimo si dih.
Gori,gori!
Žejni.
Lačni.
Zlo brezbrižnosti.
Poslušaj zgodbe naših ljudi.
Poslušaj!
Vredno se je boriti.


Hört die Geschichten unserer Leute.
Auf die Hoffnung, am Leben zu bleiben.
Es lohnt sich, dafür zu kämpfen.

Hört zu!
Tinkara Zupan, Klagenfurt, April 15, 2025


Translation in English
The Stories of Our People

The existential struggle of light.
Trembling body, woken up by explosions.
We’re dead
and yet we share the same breath.

Our home is a war
inherited from our ancestors.
Earth is a fine place—
on fire, on fire, on fire, on fire!
Assaulted nature and human life
devalued to a statistic:
a period of consequences.

Hugged by the ocean,
yet thirsty.
Serving lies to our children,
yet hungry.

The real evil is world’s inaction.
Wounds filled with dirt and gravel.
With pieces of glass and metal.
There is no plan B.
The dead tissue needs to be removed.

Listen to the stories of our people.
To the hope of staying alive.
It’s worth fighting for.

We share the same breath.
On fire, on fire!
Thirsty.
Hungry.
The evil of indifference.
Listen to the stories of our people!
Listen!
It’s worth fighting for.

Listen to the stories of our people.
To the hope of staying alive.
It’s worth fighting for.

Listen!


Tinkara Zupan, Klagenfurt, April 15, 2025



In her text, Tinkara Zupan refers to current global political events such as the wars in Ukraine, Israel, and Gaza, global climate change, and worldwide poverty.
In the course of her research, she repeatedly wondered: What can I do? How can I help? The young artist found an answer in her composition as she listened to the people and then lent them a voice—a voice she has incorporated into her music.

Ensemble of the Alma Mahler Musikverein
In 2022, Alja Klemenc founded the Alma Mahler Musikverein and the ensemble of the same name (its lineup consisting of GMPU students), which devotes itself to the performance of classical and contemporary music while relying on experimental approaches and contemporary formats. The Alma Mahler Musikverein seeks to continue the legacy of this gifted musician by conceiving innovative and educational projects that combine painting, literature, and architecture with music.