White Cube/Black Box. Sculpture collection, video, installation, film, lectures

The title of this exhibition addressed the shifting collection concept of the Generali Foundation, which was initially focused on Austrian contemporary sculpture after 1945 at the end of the 1980s, and how this finally developed in the first half of the 1990s. Based on more recent acquisitions of time-based works, the exhibition thematized different conditions of presentations of art. These ranged from the exhibition space as a White Cube with sculptures, to participatory and performative forms and New Design for Showing Videos (1995) created by Dan Graham for viewing videos, to a Black Box set up for film screenings, performances, and lectures. A fundamental thesis was that the place where art takes place is explicitly or implicitly part of it and not neutral. In an accompanying series of lectures, the conceptual notion of sculpture and the inclusion of media such as photography, film, video, and television as well as performative forms of art were discussed. The selection from the Generali Foundation Collection focused on cross-media works, including film works by VALIE EXPORT and Gordon Matta-Clark. The exhibition also staged the performance Daughters of the Revolution by the V-Girls. Most recently, a third film series with works by Hollis Frampton, Yoko Ono, Michael Snow, and Joyce Wieland, selected by Steve Anker and EXPORT, was screened.

A selection of different sculptures was on display in the large exhibition hall, juxtaposed with New Design for Showing Videos by Dan Graham, which was used for the first time as a video library for the growing collection of video art. In this video showroom, recipients were given an active role in the selection of works. Opposite, in the small exhibition hall, a film, lecture, and event space were set up in the form of a black box using an installation made of black rubber by Heimo Zobernig. Opening hours were shifted to the afternoons and evenings and a drinks vending machine was installed to accommodate the usual conditions for films and lectures.

With this exhibition structure, the fixed display of the same works in the same place during a certain period was problematized and different reception parameters of exhibition and film screening or lecture were demonstrated. In White Cube/Black Box, different works were offered on each day of the exhibition, some of which could be selected by the visitors themselves. The constant availability of film or video using endless tapes or short clips as well as forms of individual as opposed to collective consumption of art were also problematized.