Wednesday, 26 October 2016, 06.30–08 pm

To understand ways of exhibiting as a critique of efficacy already seems to be part of a certain tradition within institutional exhibition spaces. At the same time, the dimension of praxis often remains visible in exhibitions. We find this not only present in art works that refer to forms of action or everyday-life, but also in the way that they are installed in art spaces. Therefore, exhibiting is not only about alternative modes of production, but it already produces under alternative conditions.
The anthology Ausstellen – Zur Kritik der Wirksamkeit in den Künsten (Exhibiting – On the Critique of Efficacy in the Arts), edited by Kathrin Busch, Burkhard Meltzer and Tido von Oppeln, is published 2016 by diaphanes, Zürich/Berlin.

Sabeth Buchmann is an art historian and critic based in Berlin/Vienna and Professor of History of Modern and Postmodern Art at the Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna. Together with Helmut Draxler, Clemens Krümmel, and Susanne Leeb she co-edits PoLyPen, a series on art criticism and political theory, published by b_books, Berlin. Most recently, Putting Rehearsals to the Test. Practices of Rehearsal in Fine Arts, Film, Theater, Theory, and Politics (co-edited with Ilse Lafer and Constanze Ruhm) was published by Sternberg Press, Berlin 2016.

Ilse Lafer is curator, author and lecturer at the University of Applied Arts, Vienna and was curator of the Generali Foundation (2008-2015). She co-edited numerous anthologies on conceptual art practices, most recently: Putting Rehearsals to the Test. Practices of Rehearsal in Fine Arts, Film, Theater, Theory, and Politics (with Sabeth Buchmann and Constanze Ruhm, Sternberg Press, Berlin 2016). She has been organizing various exhibitions as a (co-)curator, most recently Putting Rehearsals to the Test, a three-part exhibition (conceived together with the co-editors of the publication with the same name) in Montréal.

With kind support of the Institute for Critical Theory of the Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK).

Image: Sean Edwards, Untitled, 1970s Tesco bag, glass and colour, 2007. Courtesy the artist, Limoncello, London and Tanya Leighton, Berlin.