JOHN BALDESSARI
March 14 - 27, 2000
 
 

 
 
With a work by American artist John Baldessari the Secession continues a project, that gathers artistic statements by Austrian as well as international artists commenting the political situation in Austria. (Open letter by the board of the artists' association)
 
The Secession, a private and independent artists' association, is one of Austria's leading institutions for contemporary art. The building is a famous landmark. Taking into account that its facade is one of the most photographed sites in Vienna, we are using it as a platform for critical artistic thought and expression. The right-hand wing of the façade has again and again been used in the history of the Secession for advertising purposes in that exhibition posters of the Secession were displayed on it. Now this wing is provided for various artistic thoughts.
 
John Baldessari uses the "Happy Face" motif, invented in the 70s in America as a sticker for cars. It was spread over Europe and became a motif known as "Smiley" which one could see everywhere in the streets, as a yellow sticker as well as a button, preferably liked and worn by the youth.
 
As quite often in his work Baldessari uses an internationally known image - here the smiling face - reduced to its basic signs. He shows us the 'original' version and alters it first by taking off the yelow background colour and in a second step by adding a moustache and hair, thus changing the "Happy Face" or "Smiley" to the well known basic physiognomical signs of Hitler's face. He shows us faces of our everyday culture and our political history - both being part of our image archive or image memory, easily being recognized and decoded. At the same time it shows us the fragile and floating borderlines between popular culture and politics.
 
Each project will be on view on the right-hand wing of the front façade for two weeks, and will be documented and included in a final publication. This project is entirely funded by private individuals, and should run for half a year.
 
Further artists et.al.: Monica Bonvicini, Louise Bourgeois, Günter Brus, Jochen Gerz, Renée Green, Joseph Kosuth, Paul McCarthy, Dorit Margreiter, Werner Reiterer, Heimo Zobernig.
 
 
Project team: Matthias Herrmann, Sylvie Liska, Eleonora Louis