open spaces | secret places. Works from the VERBUND COLLECTION, Vienna

Present | Absent

The first part of the exhibition is determined by the medium of photography. Jeff Wall secretively stages fragments of urbanity on the periphery. Joachim Koester, Bernd and Hilla Becher, Tom Burr, Teresa Hubbard/Alexander Birchler and David Wojnarowicz examine the fragility of the present given the historical change in space and time. Louise Lawler guides our gaze to places in which artworks are kept and presented. Janet Cardiff/Georges Bures Miller stage a journey through memories as an audio-visual experience space. 

The second part of the exhibition is dedicated to a personal experience of space. Ernesto Neto creates a cage draped with nylon, which can be walked around and seen as an allegory for our psychological system. Gordon Matta-Clark deconstructs rooms and houses, cuts them open and radically redefines them for the viewer. Fred Sandback breaks with the conventional idea of sculpture and creates a volumes without mass in the space using tensioned threads. Anthony McCall bathes our body in a cone of light that becomes visible in the mist. Both artists succeed in creating space without building it.

Photos: © Sandra Stojkovic / Wild & Team