Depth not breadth
A collection of contemporary art with an international focus has been growing at VERBUND, Austria’s largest electricity company, since the autumn of 2004. It places art positions of the 1970s in dialogue with current movements. During that decade, many artists parted with painting, and terms such as feminism, post-modernism and the spatialisation of art, as well as the questioning of identities and self-presentation became the focus of artistic attention.
The exhibition concentrates on two topics: “Performance” and “Spaces/Places”. The work applied to the floor at VERBUND, “Held Together With Water” (1993) by the New York concept artist Lawrence Weiner, gives the exhibition its title and marks both the lobby of the energy company and the exhibition at the MAK.
The artistic media variety of sculpture, photography, video, film, slide and audio installation reflects the contemporary orientation of the VERBUND COLLECTION. “Performance” encompasses, among other things, the early photographs of Cindy Sherman, which were created in 1975-76 and in which the artists transforms herself into stereotypical roles. Situated opposite is the themed block “Spaces / Places” with the sculptures consisting of fine threads by Fred Sandback and Ernesto Neto’s organically shaped cage sculpture. Lightboxes by Jeff Wall and photographs by Loan Nguyen mark the topics of periphery and urban non-places. Works by Gordon Matta-Clark, Simon Starling, Gabriel Orozco and Teresa Hubbard / Alexander Birchler etc. supplement the selection of the works presented here and thus show the diversity of the extensive, internationally aligned VERBUND COLLECTION, which has been growing since 2004. The Advisory Board responsible for the collection’s strategy includes Gabriele Schor as head of the collection, Sean Rainbird (Staatsgalerie Stuttgart) and Philipp Kaiser (Museum of Contemporary Art, Basel / MOCA, Los Angeles).
The maxim of the VERBUND COLLECTION is: Depth not breadth.
Photos: © Rupert Steiner
