Anna Artaker's Exhibition at Secession: Exploring Historiography Through Visual Narratives and Death Masks

Anna Artaker's exhibition explores the production of images in the context of historiography, focusing on how visuals are used to construct and convey history. The exhibition features stereoscopic photographs of death masks taken by Sergei Merkurov.

Anna Artaker's exhibition delves into the creation of visual imagery within the framework of historical narratives, investigating images that have become integral to specific historiographies. A central theme in her recent work has been the death masks of Sergei Merkurov (1881–1952), a "state artist" of the Soviet Union who created monumental hero portraits and took death masks of prominent figures. These include individuals like Lenin, Sergei Eisenstein, Maxim Gorki, and figures associated with repressive policies. The exhibition highlights the unique nature of these death masks, which originate from religious and cultic practices but were utilized within a modern historiographical project. For her solo exhibition at the Secession, Artaker continues her exploration of Merkurov's death masks, previously documented in photo series and film versions. In this exhibition, she presents stereoscopic photographs of the masks displayed in custom-made display cases. The stereoscopic technique, an older photographic method, leverages the human eye's optical capabilities to create an illusion of three-dimensionality. This choice of technique emphasizes the media-theoretical implications of the masks and their reproduction, drawing parallels between death masks and photography as methods of preserving, duplicating, and examining objects. The exhibition can also be understood as an investigation into the auratic, a concept Walter Benjamin linked to the loss of aura in art through technical reproduction, suggesting that the aura is fundamentally a question of the medium itself.

Information and tickets for the exhibition can be found via the provided links, indicating that booking may be required or available through a third-party platform. General museum opening hours are also listed, suggesting standard admission policies may apply. Further details are directed to the ticketing page. The exhibition runs from April 30 to June 20, 2010.