This first comprehensive retrospective of Martha Rosler’s influential works traveled to six museums in Europe and the USA. The exhibition-tour was co-organized by Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, and Generali Foundation, Vienna, and was supported by the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.
Since the late 1960s, Martha Rosler (Brooklyn, New York) has taken a position on socially relevant issues with works which are both poignantly critical and humorous, while continuing a vigorous engagement with questions of contemporary art. Among the most important issues she has dealt with are food as a central issue in the private and the public world, the position of the woman within society, the role of the mass media—particularly in wars, and urban structures. Martha Rosler wants to address a wider audience beyond the art world. Many of her works have a narrative, personal character which leaves open the question whether it is autobiographical or fictional. For Rosler, what makes a work have any resonance at all is the relationship between direct experience and its mediation and causation. Not tied to any medium, she employs those methods and strategies which seem appropriate for each particular issue. Martha Rosler has created influential works in the fields of photography, performance, video, and installation, as well as critical and theoretical essays.
Photo © Werner Kaligofsky, Bildrecht Wien 1998
12 May–8 August 1999
Generali Foundation
Vienna, AT
Exhibition tour organized by
Elizabeth A. Macgregor and Sabine Breitwieser
Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, GB: 2 December 1998–31 January 1999
Institut d’Art Contemporain, Villeurbanne-Lyon, FR: 10 February–30 April 1999
Museu d‘Art Contemporani de Barcelona (MACBA), Barcelona, ES: 19 October 1999–9 January 2000
Nederlands Foto Institut, Rotterdam, NL: 2000
The New Museum of Contemporary Art: 15 July–8 October 2000
The International Center for Photography (ICP) New York, US: 29 July–1 October 2000
Curator
Sabine Breitwieser
Curatorial assistant: Hemma Schmutz
Exhibition catalogues
Martha Rosler. Positions in a Life-World
Edited by Catherine de Zegher for Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, and Generali Foundation, Vienna, 1999
Introduction Elizabeth A. Macgregor and Sabine Breitwieser, essays Alexander Alberro, Silvia Eiblmayr, Annette Michelson, Martha Rosler, and Catherine de Zegher, interview Benjamin H. D. Buchloh with the artist
24.5 x 17.2, 303 pages, 97 color and 92 b&w illustrations
Hardcover, English
Cambridge, Mass./London, The MIT Press, 1998
ISBN 0-262-04174-X
Martha Rosler. Positionen in der Lebenswelt
Catalogue raisonné edited by Sabine Breitwieser for Generali Foundation, Vienna, 1999
in collaboration with Catherine de Zegher
Preface Dietrich Karner, introduction and work descriptions Sabine Breitwieser, essays Alexander Alberro, Silvia Eiblmayr, Annette Michelson, Martha Rosler, Catherine de Zegher, interview Benjamin H. D. Buchloh with the artist
Designed by Dorit Margreiter
24.5 x 19 cm, 400 pages, 125 color and 126 b&w illustrations
Softcover with dust jacket, German
Cologne, Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König, 1999 (hardcover)
ISBN 3-901107-23-1