Intro

Kunsthalle Exnergasse, Vienna,  7. 2. – 24. 3. 2018

The exhibition takes Siegfried Kracauer’s concept of history as its departure point in its exploration of contemporary questions on the basis of past moments. The featured works investigate specific historical constellations as well as the fundamental possibilities of recording and representing historical events. This self-reflexive inquiry into the means of representing history correlates with a historiography that is conscious of the constructive elements of facts and therefore does not provide “alternative facts”. Seen in this way, history becomes a process characterised by a temporary nature. This view corresponds with Kracauer’s scepticism towards the permanently fixed and the retrospectively founded logic of an idea. For he was far more convinced that “there are always holes in the wall for us to evade and the improbable to slip in” (Siegfried Kracauer, History – The Last Things Before The Last, 1969).

With works by: Kathi Hofer, Katrin Hornek, Dejan Kaludjerović, Tatiana Lecomte, Miklós Erhardt & Little Warsaw, Walid Raad, Vladislav Shapovalov, Slavs and Tatars, Johanna Tinzl & Stefan Flunger, UBERMORGEN

Curated by Gudrun Ratzinger