LOUISE BOURGEOIS
July 18 - August 1, 2000
 
 

 
 
The Secession continues 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 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.
 
Louise Bourgeois has also accepted the invitation of the Secession to present an artistic statement on the political situation in Austria, and the façade project continues with her work.
 
 

 
 
The artist, who has lived in New York since 1938, only gaine inter/national fame in the early eighties when the Museum of Modern Art showed a retrospective of her works. Since then, she has had tremendous influence on a generation of younger artists. Many of her works, be they drawings, sculptures or installations, are interwoven with childhood memories. Her early years were influenced by the movement holding sway in Paris at the time - Surrealism - and Bourgeois turned its (male) fascination with the female body around, towards a female perspective. Louise Bourgeois said something to the effect of "the body being sculpture" for her, and she explores its capacity to offer images of femininity, images of the psychic, of vulnerability, suppression, resentment.
 
In her work for the Secession façade Bourgeois has reduced visual elements to the simple but all the more memorable contrast of black and white, and the letters NO: they are set in different types and combinations as if parts of a collage taken out of different texts, causing the viewer to pronounce them in different ways. An English NO can just as well as be pronounced as an Italian NO, and where two noes are close to one another, one is reminded of the French NON. In any event, in its play on repetition the picture insists on saying NO, whatever the language may be. It's Louise Bourgeois' powerful statement, and at the same time her mandate.
 
Further artists include: Monica Bonvicini, Renée Green, Paul McCarthy, 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.