Dan Graham. Video/Architecture/Performance

This first major exhibition of the work of US-American artist Dan Graham (1942 Urbana–2022 New York, US) in Austria presented several video installations and his videos, architecture and models of projects in public space, and conceptual works. On the opening evening, Graham presented his performance Performer/Audience/Mirror (first performed in 1975).

Especially for the exhibition, the artist conceived a room-filling installation entitled New Design for Showing Videos, which was realized as a central work in the large hall and ultimately acquired for the EA-Generali Foundation’s collection. The starting point for his considerations was the presentation of his video works and those of the museum collection and the interaction of the individual viewers with the videos and with each other. Intended for both outdoor and indoor use, New Design for Showing Videos is based on similarly conceived works from the mid-1980s and has a dual identity as a functional sculpture or pavilion. In addition to transparent glass and two-way mirrors, punched aluminum was also used for the first time for the new video showroom, a reference by Graham to the pixels of the video image. In the five booths of the pavilion, three (mirrored) programs with videos by the artist on rock music and performance as well as video documentations of some his architecture in public space were shown on six monitors.

Opposite New Design for Showing Videos, which is reminiscent of the shape of a swastika, Graham’s model of the Star of David Pavilion (1989), which he had already designed for the Kunstraum Buchberg at the time of the Waldheim affair* but had not yet been realized at that time, was placed right at the entrance to the exhibition. Other pavilions and installations in the exhibition were Revolving Doors for Loie Fuller (1987) and Triangle with Circular Inserts (1991) as well as the video installations Opposing Mirror and Monitors on Time Delay (1974), Yesterday/Today (1975) Two Viewing Rooms (1975). Also on view were models for projects in public space, including Alteration to a Suburban House (1978), Two-Way Mirror and Hedge Labyrinth (1989), Children’s Pavilion (together with Jeff Wall, 1989), Museum for Gordon Matta-Clark (together with Marie Paul McDonald, 1984) and the Skateboard Pavilion (1989). Some of Graham’s early conceptual art was accessible as facsimiles. During the exhibition, his work Schema (1966) was published in the daily newspaper Der Standard in cooperation with the museum in progress.

* The former UN Secretary-General’s election campaign for the office of President of Austria sparked a debate about Kurt Waldheim’s suspected involvement in war crimes during the Nazi era.