JOCHEN GERZ
April 25 - May 8, 2000
 
 
   
 
 
With works by Franz West, John Baldessari and Dorit Margreiter the Secession started a project, that gathers artistic statements by Austrian as well as international artists commenting the political situation in Austria. (Open letter to the Austrian president by the board of the Secession). The project involving the façade of the Vienna Secession continues as a work by Jochen Gerz follows the contribution by Günter Brus.
 
Gerz, born in Berlin, has been living in Paris since 1966. Initially working in the field of Visual and Concrete Poetry and as a translator, he used public spaces for his interventions. A year later, he started doing his photo/text works, adding video art, performance and installations to the scope of artistic media he used to question language and image in the next few years. Texts and photographs have remained the two "vectors" (Gerz) of his work. The theme of communication, and in particular the various ways in which language is mediatised, has formed a red thread through Gerz oeuvre ever since.
 
As from 1984 projects have been carried out in collaboration with Ester Shalev-Gerz. They attract international attention when, in 1986, they created the "Monument against Fascism" of Hamburg-Harburg, a column with a lead surface on which passers-by were invited to write their comments as the column slowly sank into the ground. In the context of his teaching assignments at art academies, Gerz created "2146 Stones - Monument Against Racism", a work which came about in collaboration with his students in Saarbrücken in 1993. The memorial designed by Jochen Gerz and Esther Shalev-Gerz for Graz-Feliferhof ("The Geese of Feliferhof") was awarded the 1st prize and was chosen for realisation; however, the project was later on cancelled.
 
The text for the façade project, placed against the reddish-brown background typical of Gerz‚s works, seems to have been taken from a dictionary but was actually written by Gerz himself. ("Barbarian, Gr. m., human being who is deceived by morality, /hence no longer recognises fellowmen as such, i.e. is able to destroy in/ the name of morality. /Barbarism, Gr. f., cultural phenomenon (mostly concerning acts/ committed by groups (Austria).") It was shown in Düsseldorf as a light box and poster in 1993 in similarly large dimensions - identifying the country as (Germany). Gerz thus continues to develop the issue of authentic communication in a mediatised world, using the methods and patterns of language in the public sphere: "...Text as a message reflected in language: for Gerz, the use of medium is at the same time a way of raising awareness for the problems involved in using it." (Christina Weiss)
 
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 include: Monica Bonvicini, Louise Bourgeois, Marcus Geiger, Renée Green, Ilya Kabakov, Joseph Kosuth, Peter Land, Werner Reiterer, Milica Tomic, Heimo Zobernig..
 
 
For updated information please contact Matthias Herrmann, Sylvie Liska and Eleonora Louis at the Vienna Secession on +43- 1- 587 53 07.