Petra Reichensperger on Artmap.com

WHICH LIFE? A PANORAMIC VIEW OF THE COLLECTIONS

Which Life? A Panoramic View of the Collections is the third exhibition of works from the Generali Foundation Collection, which is on permanent loan to the Museum der Moderne Salzburg. Once again, a thematic selection from this renowned collection, whose mainstay is post-minimal, conceptual, and feminist art, is presented in dialogue with other works primarily from the museum’s own holdings of prints and photographs as well as paintings and sculptures from the MAP Collection. In the new installation, a sequence of 130 works by twenty-six artists from seven countries offers a range of perspectives on the realities of life. A separate room is dedicated to the Expanded Cinema works of VALIE EXPORT, who is represented by central pieces in the Generali Foundation Collection. As a special highlight, the exhibition also features the first realization of a video installation the artist originally conceived in the mid-1970s, Zeitlücken – Raumspalten (Gaps in Time – Cracks in Space, 1973/2015).

Francisco de Goya’s cycle Los Caprichos (1793–1799) represents a powerful matrix that underlies the exhibition as a whole. The title promises “Moments of Whimsy” and “Fancies,” but what Goya’s etchings actually show are scenes of the war between the sexes, venal love, and the abuse of power: a life that does not submit to neat distinctions. The issues it raises surface in other works as well.

Andrea Fraser’s installation Kunstvermittlung (Art Education, 1995) asks questions such as “So what do you do with your life? Do you believe that your work, your life, your ideas are special or important?” Maria Eichhorn’s Arbeit/Freizeit (Work/Leisure, 1994–1996), meanwhile, inquires: “Do you collect something? When you were a child, what did you want to be?” And in Kerry Tribe’s video installation Here & Elsewhere (2004), the British film theorist Peter Wollen and his ten-year-old daughter Audrey discuss questions such as “Does light stand still or does it move?” or “Do you think that a picture exists?”

Those who would change reality not only need to ask specific questions, they also need to have a keen appreciation of existing problems and conflicts, as Adrian Piper, who was recently honored with the Golden Lion at this year’s 56th Biennale di Venezia, demonstrates in her formidable two-part installation Black Box/White Box (1992) about a racist incident in Los Angeles in 1992. Sanja Iveković’s image-and-text montages from the mid-1970s, on the other hand, tell stories of the “bitter” life in the former Yugoslavia as well as its occasional “sweet” sides. Also on display in the exhibition are Dan Graham’s widely celebrated installation New Design for Showing Videos (1995) and a set of works by Edward Krasiński, including his well-known interventions with blue Scotch tape.

Works by:
Dara Birnbaum, Maria Eichhorn, Isa Genzken, Francisco de Goya, Dan Graham, Jörg Immendorff, Sanja Iveković, Joan Jonas, Birgit Jürgenssen, John Knight, Eustachy Kossakowski, Edward Krasiński, Richard Kratochwill, Franz Xaver Kulstrunk, Elisabeth Kraus, Paul McCarthy, Tony Oursler mit Sonic Youth, Adrian Piper, Gerwald Rockenschaub, Martha Rosler, Gerhard Rühm, Kerry Tribe, Franz West, Heimo Zobernig, especially featuring VALIE EXPORT and Andrea Fraser

Curators: Sabine Breitwieser, Director und and Petra Reichensperger, Curator Generali Foundation Collection, Museum der Moderne Salzburg