HOW SOCIETY AND POLITICS GET INTO THE PICTURE

With works by
Bureau d’études, Alice Creischer/Andreas Siekmann, Maria Eichhorn, Hans Haacke, Klub Zwei/SFC–Schwarze Frauen Community, Andreja Kuluncic, Adrian Piper, Martha Rosler, Stephen Willats.

The second edition of the exhibition cycle on themes related to the collection, which started in 2004, was dedicated to a subject area that is more closely associated with the Generali Foundation’s program than almost any other: the interweaving of art, society and politics. The focus of this exhibition was on artistic practices that reflect social and political conditions or even intervene in them. Some of the diverse and often surprising artistic strategies were the subject of the exhibition, which featured works from the collection and loans.

Works by Hans Haacke, Stephen Willats, Martha Rosler and Adrian Piper, four influential artists for whom socio-political issues have been a fundamental concern since the 1960s/70s, formed a kind of “framework” in the exhibition. Selected works by artists of the younger generations could be read in relation to these works, in particular how themes and working methods have changed. In general, the focus of the exhibition was on extensive projects, which made the different artistic approaches and visual politics visible like in several overlapping areas in the exhibition.

The fact that artists’ visual and thematic engagement with certain political and social contexts can lead to controversy is nothing new. The problem of simplifying complex contexts in the form of diagrams such as those of Bureau d’études, which encourage stereotypical interpretations or even antisemitism, came to light during the exhibition through sharp criticism.