Who doesn’t sometimes want to be someone else, to take off their own self like a jacket and simply put on a new one? In the exhibition double life, the Generali Foundation presented works by artists from different generations and regions in which the desire to take on a different role was addressed. Working with or inventing fictitious characters, role reversal and masquerade are particularly important in the work of many female artists. This desire to shift fixed identities also has a political aspect when criticism of existing conditions is practiced. These are often criticized in works of art in a playful or ironic way.
The theme of identity and transformation was presented in this exhibition using a variety of working methods. On the one hand, the artists worked with photography, video and text, in other words with media that we also use to document our ‘real’ lives, and on the other hand the artists staged their works in performances and installations. Other areas of the exhibition were devoted to artists’ books and Internet and CD-Rom projects.
On the occasion of the exhibition and in addition to the exhibition catalogue, two artist’s books by Sanja Iveković from 1976 have been reprinted.
Sanja Iveković. Double-Life 1959–1975
29.3 x 20.4 cm, 32 pages, 30 b&w illustrations
ISBN 3-901107-30-4
Sanja Iveković. Tragedy of a Venus 1975
29.3 x 20.4 cm, 34 pages, 32 b&w illustrations
ISBN 3-901107-31-2
Croatian/English, brochure
Cologne, Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König, 2001
Photo © Werner Kaligofsky, Bildrecht Wien 2001
12 May–12 August 2001
Generali Foundation
Vienna, AT
With works by
Marina Abramović, Eleanor Antin, VALIE EXPORT, Dominique Gonzales-Foerster, Ion Grigorescu, Lynn Hershman, Pierre Huyghe, Sanja Iveković, Elke Krystufek, Friedl Kubelka, David Lamelas, Anita Leisz, Zoe Leonard, Linda Montano, Ria Pacquée, Philippe Parreno, Adrian Piper, Cindy Sherman, Andy Warhol, and more artists with videos, artists books, web and CD-Rom projects.
Curators
Sabine Breitwieser, Hemma Schmutz
Co-Curator internet and CD-Rom projects: Yvonne Volkart
Exhibition catalogue
Edited by Sabine Breitwieser
for Generali Foundation, Vienna, 2001
double life. Identität und Transformation in der zeitgenössischen Kunst / Identity and Transformation in Contemporary Arts
Preface by Dietrich Karner, texts Sabine Breitwieser, Ruth Noack, Yvonne Volkart and the artists
28 × 21.6 cm, 243 pages, 131 color and 112 b&w illustrations
Softcover, German/English
Cologne, Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König, 2001 (hardcover)
ISBN 3-901107-28-2