2021 – Hear now, the new dawn – Gloria Zein
Article for the catalogue of the exhibition: 89. Herbstausstellung des Kunstvereins Hannover (2021)...
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2020 – Materialize me! – Sequential processes in sculpture – Sarah Maske
The process of sculpture creation includes complex occurrences of decision-making and realization that often remain unconcluded and that extend into the exhibition space. For several years, Gloria Zein has been creating culptural groups from various materials that, in their heterogeneity, appear like active characters. ...
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2019 – Reflections on art in a fragmented society of control – Gloria Zein in conversation with Roberto Nigro
GZ: You have extensively researched and written on Foucault, and especially on his seminal publication Discipline and Punish (...). In summary, I would say that he analyses in this book power structures by means of the history of disciplinary action or education within western societies. Having said this, I would like to start with a fundamental question: What is a school?...
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2018 – The mysterious settlement of sheep at Melle – Hajo Eickhoff
The terms pecunia and pecus are etymologically linked and a central concern of du vertige de la contingence, a work by artist Gloria Zein for the 2018 biennale at Melle. Pecunia means money and wealth, pecus means sheep and cattle. Thus, the sheep is not any animal. On the contrary, pecus is the base for cattle, the original word for wealth. Therefore, sheep are considered valuable – they are currency and sacrificial animal, wool provider, food producer and food....
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2018 – Bestiaire en campagne. Campaign of a rural bestiary – Chloé Hipeau-Disko
(...) The forms in Gloria Zein’s work are either rather geometric or organically shaped. In any case, there is little trumpery. The work is there, coarse and sometimes disruptive. Yet, as soon as one gets closer to scrutinize what’s going on, the pertinence of interventions as well as the artist’s humorous approach unfold....
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2016 – Stop! – Anna Grande
Gloria Zein’s ceramics stage a trace of violence. They tie in with artistic traditions that go far back to hominisation, as they manifest an archaic creative urge that originates in an incomprehensible abyss on the borderline of the sacred. ...
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2016 – Everything is needed – some notes and associations on the work of Gloria Zein – Noor Mertens
Transformation or: Hands and Brains...
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2014 – Specific degrees of whiteness in a poisenous elephant – Gloria Zein
Allegedly, Siam kings offered white elephants to adversaries, who they wanted to financially (and politically) destroy. Unable to refuse the sovereign’s giant gift, they had to provide for the animal while slowly falling into ruin. What a deliciously elegant, sleeky and despicable gesture. Spitefulness and torture are maximised to become a polonium version of the refined French “cadeau empoisonné” (the “poisoned gift”). It seems we are surrounding ourselves with white elephants....
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2012 – Letter From London – An interview with Gloria Zein, on dancing chickens and German art – Matthew Rose
GZ: I’ve been exploring a participatory approach to art making for quite a while. For the Goethe-Institut project I interviewed every employee, from the receptionist, the librarian and cleaning staff to the German teachers, the cultural department workers and the director to understand the structure of the Institute before designing and dedicating a small sculpture for each function. This Goethe-Institut commission came at a perfect time, as it allowed me to closely weave these interests with my sculptural practice: ...
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2012 – Artist Talk: Goethe-Institut London, Gloria Zein im Gespräch mit Stephanie Rosenthal
GZ: A sculpture is a body. It’s nothing that exists for itself. It always establishes a relationship to the surrounding space. My project for the Goethe-Institut deals with this specific place, which is neither a gallery nor a white cube. I’ve worked with the facts of the building and what happens in here. ...
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2009 – catalogue text on “zein’s fiction” at Kunstraum Düsseldorf – Katja Schlenker
„Do you … believe there is an innocent past?“ steht auf der Zeichnung und schwingt gleichzeitig als Stimmung über Gloria Zeins Rauminstallation „zein’s fiction“....