THIS IS NOT FOR YOU: Sculptural Discourses
23 November, 2006 – 30 March, 2007
Tuesday to Saturday, 12 6 pm
Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary
Himmelpfortgasse 13
A-1010 Vienna, Austria
Web:www.tba21.org
Email:office@tba21.org
Tel:43 1 513 9856
Until 30 March 2007, Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary presents works of sculpture, assemblage, and sculptural installation from its collection by:
AI WeiWei, Davide BALULA, Fiona BANNER, Monica BONVICINI, CHEN Qiulin, Ingar DRAGSET & Michael ELMGREEN, Isa GENZKEN, Jeppe HEIN, Jim LAMBIE, Sarah LUCAS, Jan MANCUSKA, Carsten NICOLAI, Olaf NICOLAI, Jorge PARDO, Gerwald ROCKENSCHAUB, Eva ROTHSCHILD, Rachel SELEKMAN, Andreas SIEKMANN, Do-Ho SUH, Heimo ZOBERNIG
Sculptural practice today embraces a diversity of approaches, materials and formats which all offer a mediated and physical encounter with the real. This increasingly expansive concept of sculpture takes for granted a complex entanglement of object, image, text, conceptual framing and the viewers reception. The works presented in this exhibition represent the continuation of a historic development of the plastic form that extends from the ready-made, objet trouvé and primary objects into contextual art and the institutional critique of the 1980s and 1990s and their critical experiments with space and objects.
The transformation of the institutional space, its shift and activation as a place for art is renegotiated within the framework of THIS IS NOT FOR YOU by the works altering the floors, walls, light, furnishings and color of the exhibition space by artists such as Jim Lambie, Heimo Zobernig, Jorge Pardo and Gerwald Rockenschaub. These works attempt to influence the visitors reception, participation, and imagination through the construction of particular spatial situations, and consequently break with the conventions of order, stability, and controls of the exhibition space.
Geographical and cultural relations are established throughout the exhibition in order to question connections between the most diverse narratives: the fragility of authoritative cultural and political concepts (social welfare state, individual living space, air defense, militarism, and democracy); the relevance of popular culture, heritage and artisanal folklore to contemporary practice; and the strategies of ethnographic investigations as strategies for preservation and memorialization.
The exhibition´s title is borrowed from Monica Bonvicini´s light sculpture NOTFORYOU, displayed outdoors in the foundation´s ground floor courtyard. The work uses language as an expression of power structures (prohibition / command) but is formally derived from advertising billboards and carnival lights.
The slight change of the signifiers contain an affirmative demand to read and re-read Bonvicini´s sign, because with each reading, a new configuration of blinking light displays a new variant of reading to the reader.
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A foundation for contemporary art, Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary was founded in 2002 in Vienna, Austria, by Francesca von Habsburg. An innovative and multi-disciplinary initiative of patronage and collection, the foundation represents the fourth generation of the Thyssen family´s dedication to the arts. Francesca von Habsburg´s father, Hans Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza, assembled a world renowned private collection of art, today on public display at the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza in Madrid.
Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary has established a respected collection of artworks from the 21st century in the field of new media film, video, light, sound and mixed media installations, photography and performance art and is dedicated to commissioning new works by some of the most challenging and creative artists of our time. The site- and context-specific commissions are generated in close collaboration with those artists that the foundation supports, and are born out of personal commitment to fostering courageous and bold projects which empower audiences with a living experience of contemporary artistic expression.
