This exhibition, the fourth in a series on Performative Installation, explores the human body within economic contexts. It examines how the body functions as a display for roles and identities, transforming the exhibition space into a stage and projection area.
The exhibition 'Body Display – Performative Installation #4' delves into the multifaceted relationship between the human body and economic systems. As the fourth installment of the 'Performative Installation' series, a collaboration involving multiple prominent art institutions, this exhibition specifically focuses on the themes of 'Body & Economy.' The concept of 'Display' is explored in dual senses: referring to the spatial presentation and the performative stage, as well as the body itself acting as a canvas for various roles and identities. To reflect this, the Secession's main space is transformed into an imaginary stage, serving as both an action and projection area, a 'black box.' The exhibition features works by Victor Alimpiev and Marian Zhunin, whose video 'Ode' stages a choreography of uniform bodies questioning mass and individuality; John Bock, who uses word cascades and objectification to explore organic and economic processes in his installation 'Weißschweißproduktion'; Cosima von Bonin, creating surreal spaces with everyday materials; Brice Dellsperger, re-enacting film scenes to explore gender fluidity in 'Body Double #9'; Andrea Fraser, using institutional critique in her video installation 'Exhibition'; Svetlana Heger, who uses her body as a surface for commercial exchange in 'Signed by…'; Anette Baldauf and Dorit Margreiter, referencing a women-only shopping mall in their work 'She-Zone'; John Miller, whose 'The Lugubrious Game' critiques media's sell-out of society; and René Pollesch, whose TV production '24 Stunden sind kein Tag' addresses globalization's impact on life and work.