Others
dal 19/11/2012 al 22/6/2013
Segnalato da
19/11/2012
Others
MAK Austrian Museum of Applied Arts / Contemporary Art, Wien
A selection of works-on-paper and three-dimensional objects, the exhibition focuses on items in the MAK Collection that are not clearly categorized and whose authors are principally unknown. The curator Pae White is interested in the role of critics in the formation of narratives, which exclude objects of ambiguous value in order to create clearer histories.
curated by Pae White
Within every museum there are objects that are unattributable, that have no
clear authorship, and yet remain part of the collection. The significance of
the object is clear, but their place in an historical narrative is not. Living in a
sort of limbo, these objects pass time in their dark, climate-controlled space,
waiting for a curator to detach them from limbo (or not). The institution
understands their inherent value, yet cannot position them definitively in
any conventional art-historical chronicle, which consequently ensures their
continued absence from both exhibitions and historical texts.
To be certain, art historians and curators, alike, must engage in the editing of
history to establish a storyline clear enough to be understood by a target
audience; however sophisticated that audience might be, the totality of production in any era is too much to apprehend easily. When that era is the
explosion of creativity that was fin de siècle Vienna, however, the trickledown exuberance needs to be recognized. These creations may only seem
semi-important when viewed next to the acknowledged masterpieces of the
era, but those adjacencies provide a wider, more complex context in which to
understand the era in its entirety.
OTHERS is an attempted rescue of some of these unknown yet important
objects, by temporarily relocating them to the gallery on the top floor, allowing them the exposure that they so richly deserve. This exhibition will cele-
brate objects that challenge questions of categorization and authorship, offering, perhaps, a new, more inclusive story that defies historicism. My hope
is to present the work as it came to me—without words, free of any didactic
text anchoring it to a familiar, oft-told storyline.
In the end, OTHERS is less about the redemption of objects and more about
offering the viewer (and the objects) the space to breathe, proposing the poetic silence of the unknown, and opening up a space, freed from the tyranny
of history, in which these lovely, mostly anonymous creations can be viewed
on their own terms.
—Pae White, Vienna, November 2012
Image: Exhibition View © MAK/Katrin Wißkirchen
Press contact
Judith Schwarz-Jungmann (Head), Sandra Hell-Ghignone, Veronika Träger, Lara Steinhäußer
T +43 1 71136-229, F +43 1 71136-227 presse@mak.at
Opening Tuesday, 20 November 2012, 7 p.m.
MAK Austrian Museum of Applied Arts / Contemporary Art
Stubenring 5, 1010 Vienna, Austria
Opening Hours
Tue 10 a.m.–10 p.m.
Wed–Sun 10 a.m.–6 p.m.
Mon closed
Admission
€ 7,90 / reduced € 5,50
Free admission for children and teens up to 19
Free Admission on Tuesdays 6–10 p.m.
Family ticket € 11 (2 adults and at least one child under 14)