26/4/2002
Franz West
Mass MoCA, North Adams
The work of Franz West, Austria's most internationally acclaimed artist, is the subject of Merciless. The exhibition is organized by MAK Vienna and is in conjunction with MASS MoCA's major summer exhibition Uncommon Denominator: New Art from Vienna.
Franz West Exhibition Merciless to Accompany Uncommon Denominator at MASS MoCA
Exhibition from MAK Vienna opens April 27
The work of Franz West, Austria's most
internationally acclaimed artist, is the subject of Merciless, an exhibition
that opens April 27, 2002, and runs through November 4, 2002, at MASS MoCA.
The exhibition is organized by MAK Vienna and is in conjunction with MASS
MoCA's major summer exhibition Uncommon Denominator: New Art from Vienna.
In a career spanning more than three decades, Franz West has created
collages, the legendary 1970s malleable Paßstücke (Fitting Pieces),
countless sculptures, furniture pieces, and installations.
The centerpiece of Merciless is a powerful installation which West created
specifically for the central exhibition hall of the MAK. Installed in MASS
MoCA's dramatic Building 4, second floor gallery, Drama (Model), 2001, is
the model of an outside sculpture of the same name conceived for another
site. Rather than creating a smaller version as artists usually do for
models, West's model for Drama is three times as large as the original. This
Winnebago-sized, bubble gum-pink knot of intestine has neither entry nor
exit - its contents are forced to undergo an endless circulation.
West's Paßstücke, forms which may be used in any way (i.e. lifted, carried,
held, etc.), interact with the viewer/users forcing him to "adjust" to them,
and thus visualize his neuroses. They created a stir in the art world in
the 1970s. In sharp contrast to tradition, the public was not just allowed
but encouraged to handle these pieces and carry them around, contorting
their bodies to accommodate the bizarre forms. The 1980s saw West's
interest gradually move to furniture pieces and to exploring the boundaries
between utilitarian and art objects.
Finally, crucial for West's work is his frequent and close cooperation with
artist friends and colleagues. Merciless at MASS MoCA will include West's
collaboration with Heimo Zobernig, Sketch (Ykon), 1997/2001.
Scholar and MoMA curator Robert Storr has stated, "From intimate domestic
spaces plunked down in the most heavily trafficked of public institutions,
to couches upholstered like modern magic carpets under the open sky, from
things by others with which West surrounds himself to things he actually
made, from artful objects to objects-as-art, West's world is in 'move-in'
condition - and a moveable feast."
West is the key figure for young artists working in Vienna today. His
pioneering forays into performance-inducing sculpture that flaunts the
division between fine and applied art, as well as his dry psychological
humor and desire to collaborate with other artists, have led the way for
much of the important conceptual art being made in Vienna - and elsewhere -
today.
West's works that first drew international attention, the Paßstücke, are
plaster forms that viewers were instructed to accommodate with their bodies.
The "actions" required by the Paßstücke left the viewer feeling (and
looking) self-conscious and goofy, but fully engaged in the creation of the
work. These unusual works were a rebuttal to Actionism, the dominant
movement in Vienna during West's years. Actionism was based on violent
performances that sought to overcome sexual and religious taboos and replace
art with visceral reality. Actionism's blood-soaked rituals demanded passive
viewing from the audience. West incorporated the Actionist idea of combining
art and life and engaging the body, but rejected the Actionist gore and
authoritarian control.
In the '80s West began using purpose-built furniture in his art - creating
sites and means for the viewer to become a leisurely participant in
art-making simply by sitting around. This practice has roots in the
Secessionist movement and its tradition of melding fine and applied arts.
His furniture, often made collaboratively, walks the line between design and
art.
Partial funding for the exhibition comes from the Austrian Cultural Forum
New York and from the City of Vienna, Department of Cultural Affairs.
Franz West's Merciless and Uncommon Denominator at MASS MoCA are part of The
Vienna Project. For The Vienna Project eleven of the leading cultural
organizations in the Berkshires will bring an exciting and provocative array
of Viennese visual and performing arts - from classic to contemporary - to
the Berkshires in the summer of 2002. Arts in the Berkshires: The Vienna
Project will include visual arts, music, theater, and film.
Participating organizations include the Berkshire Museum, Berkshire Opera,
Berkshire Theatre Festival, Berkshire Choral Festival, Norman Rockwell
Museum, Shakespeare & Company, Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute,
MASS MoCA, Tanglewood, William College Museum of Art, and the Williamstown
Theatre Festival.
For more information visit http://www.BerkshireArts.org.
MASS MoCA is the country's largest center for contemporary visual and
performing arts and is located at 87 Marshall St. in North Adams,
Massachusetts, on a restored 19th-century factory campus. Until May 31, MASS
MoCA galleries are open 11- 5, closed Tuesdays. Beginning June 1, MASS
MoCA's galleries are open from 10 - 6 every day. For additional information
call 413 662 2111.
MASS MoCA
1040 MASS MoCA Way
North Adams, MA 01247
413-664-4481 ext. 8111
FX: 413-663-8548
katherine@massmoca.org