ART CITIES:Vienna-Prosperous Poison
Structured as a narrative, the exhibition “Prosperous Poison” arranges holdings of mumok’s Collection from 1945 to the present. Presenting motifs, gestures and movements in five overlapping and intersecting exhibitions that together make up a puzzling whole. Contemporary interpretation and conscious appropriation by the curators also work to reveal historical appropriations and their causes.
By Efi Michalarou
Photo: Mumok Archive
Students and teachers in the Master in Critical Studies at the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts, show their own view of the mumok Collection. Careful study of the artworks themselves, the artistic positions associated with them, and the structure of the collection as a whole brought to light the cultural, social, political, and economic developments and discourses that had influenced the works and their collection history. Questions came up: How to handle the texts, facts, pictures, how to turn them to one’s own purposes? And how to confront one’s own ambivalence—between desire and critique? The lines and conceptual areas that emerged have led to the title of the exhibition, “Prosperous Poison: On the Feminist Appropriation of the Austrian Unconscious”. Feminist appropriation here means finding a way to circumvent the mere reproduction of existing categories in art and the history of culture without turning away from them completely. Such gestures in part already show up in established artistic practices included within the collection and among its protagonists. In addition, the curators deploy a strategy of feminist appropriation when other works, too, are reinterpreted or put into this context. This leads towards an assertively queer affirmation that simultaneously draws attention to gaps and blind spots. The works in the collection here function as material in which the traces of an “Austrian unconscious” repeatedly emerge. Similarly, the exhibition architecture allows the past to be recognized in the present. Contemporary interpretation and conscious appropriation by the curators also work to reveal historical appropriations and their causes. “The selection process is not based on the alleged clarity of the criteria of classical quality or historical relevance, nor are these completely ignored. Instead, the exhibition includes works that are just exciting. Other works seem to clarify something. Others again show things that cannot be grasped, and are worth talking about just because they exist”.
Chapter 1, “Schlachten Material Prothesen”, The year 1945 marks the beginning of the postwar period and the post-traumatic convalescence that accompanied it. This chapter combines ideas about the purview of the modern subject with war. In this way, connections are drawn between the currently topical question of the revaluation of matter and concrete sociopolitical phenomena. Between production and reproduction, rehabilitation and exhaustion, restoration and deactivation, Chapter 2 “Imitating the Imitations of the Imitators”, accommodates various perspectives and makes imitation legible as a potential gesture of appropriation. Chapter 3 “Taking Pictures of the Boys”, is dedicated to the gaze as a mode of operation and an opportunity for participation or a means of access. Chapter 4 “Love”, addresses subcultures and sites that managed to create visibility for often excluded groups. Conversely, it becomes clear where such endeavors were not successful. Chapter 5 is dedicated to the ensemble of “Taking Care: Capitalistic Yoga and Anger Issues” and ranges from unambiguous critiques of capitalism to parodies of them—which are meant just as seriously.
Info: Curators: Mirela Baciak, Maren Blume, Diedrich Diederichsen, Marius Ertelt, Jannik Franzen, Leander Gussmann, Ipek Hamzaoglu, Ruth Lang, Sarah Lehnerer, Dominik Mayer, Linnéa Meiners, Inka Meissner, Natalie Ofenböck, Matteo Patti, Florian Pochlatko, Constanze Ruhm, Juliane Saupe, Flora Schausberger, Angela Strohberger, Alain Volpe, Sara Wahl, Michael Wonnerth-Magnusson. mumok Museum moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien, Museumsplatz 1, Vienna, Duration: 10/9/15-24/4/16, Days & Hours: Mon 14:00-19:00, Tue-Wed & Fri-Sun 10:00-19:00, Thu 10:00-21:00, www.mumok.at
