Andrea Fraser

During my tenure at the Museum der Moderne Salzburg I was able to present—for the first time in Austria—a comprehensive survey of the work of the American artist Andrea Fraser (1965 Billings, Montana, lives in Los Angeles, US). Fraser’s groundbreaking work has sparked some controversial debates and has made Fraser into one of the most influential artists of her generation. Fraser’s challenging approach to art is rooted in critical and feminist theory and the legacy of the first generation of artists engaged in feminism and institutional critique. Based on the theories of the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu (1930–2002), she has conducted intensive research since the mid-1980s on the social, institutional, economic, and psychological structures and strategies in contemporary fields of art. Fraser has analyzed the motivations of different stakeholders in the cultural scene as well as their interrelationships. In her artistic practice, the artist makes herself available both as a protagonist of her sociocultural analyses and as a screen for psychological projection, taking on different roles in the process. In addition, Fraser’s performances blend humor and pathos with theatrical craft and sophisticated critical analysis. Fraser challenges us to question all the interests at stake in the contemporary art.

On the basis of about fifty works representing a diverse range of media—prints, photographs, installations, performance, text and audiovisual works—the exhibition presented a comprehensive overview of her work of the past three decades. It ranged from Four Posters (1984) through celebrated performances such as Museum Highlights (1989), Inaugural Speech (1997), and Official Welcome (2001/2003), her audio installations for the Austrian pavilion at the 45th Biennale di Venezia in 1993, and recent works such as Men on the Line (2012). The exhibition also featured the European premiere of the performance Not just a few of us (2014), presented on video. Her seminal work May I Help You? was performed live and on display in the three versions completed in 1991, 2005, and 2011. An extensive archive of videos and documentary material related to works such as Damaged Goods Gallery Talk Starts Here (1986), Preliminary Prospectuses (1993), and Services (1994) marked the beginning of this exhibition.

In conjunction with the exhibition, various Austrian and German educational institutions were holding a series of lectures and seminars about different topics concerning the work of Andrea Fraser at the MdMS.