10/03/17 till 14/05/17
The exhibition Pro(s)thesis explores the technological penetration of the human body, which has been culturally accepted in the meantime on a large scale. The field of problems opening up with this development reveals the human physique as the central medium of the access to man, its vulnerability providing the anthropological premise for the machinations of power structures.
Though the upgrade culture doubtlessly implies increasing possibilities of living one’s life in accordance with one’s wishes, it also entails the risk to assist the functionalization and reification of the human body. Considering this sufficiently postulated crisis of the human body as an opportunity offers the perspective of a room for maneuver, as suggested in posthumanist and postfeminist discourse, not least thanks to the transformative possibilities offered by biology and technology. The body is lent a self-empowering potential if regarded as a constructive component. mehr
Relating to the collection of the Paintings Gallery, the course of contemporary art practice developing out of xhibit modulates the poetic-metaphorical potential of the prosthesis and invites to oscillate between past and present images of the body. The views of artistic practices opening up to visitors draw out and reinterpret the participation in power-structural orders, revealing the potentials behind the appearance of technical perfection.
The show focuses on feminist artworks that, with irony and humor, run counter to normative claims. Thus, the souped-up prosthesis, as an art artifact, turns into an effective sign of self-invention and self-empowerment.
Pro(s)thesis
Curators: Berenice Pahl, Felicitas Thun-Hohenstein
Architecture: Dorit Margreiter
Artists: Renate Bertlmann (AUT), Lisa Bufano (USA), Virginia Chihota (ZIM), Chitka (Anetta Mona Chişa & Lucia Tkáčová) (CZE/SVK), Erika Fransson (SWE), Kerstin von Gabain (USA/AUT), Judith Hopf (GER), Rebecca Horn (GER), Anne Imhoff (GER), Birgit Jürgenssen (AUT), Mari Katayama (JPN), Brigitte Lang (AUT), Roberta Lima (BRA/AUT), Kumi Machida (JPN), Iris L. Moore (CAN), Nadine Rennert (GER), Barbis Ruder (AUT), Toni Schmale (AUT), Anne Schneider (AUT), Evelin Stermitz (AUT), Angela Su (HKG), Viktoria Tremmel (AUT), Anna Vasof (GRC/AUT)