Damage Control

Art and Destruction Since 1950

14.11.2014-15.02.2015 10:00-17:00

Opening: 13.11.2014, 7 p.m.

Organized by Hirshhorn Museum, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC (USA) in association with Mudam Luxembourg and Kunsthaus Graz

Curated by: Kerry Brougher (Director, Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, Los Angeles), Russell Ferguson (Professor, Department of Art, University of California, Los Angeles)

Project coordinator (Graz): Katrin Bucher Trantow

Intervention

In the Kunsthaus Graz we show two artistic positions from Austria that complement the exhibition Damage Control: a light installation, its traffic light colours (green, orange, red) recalling symbols of technical control buttons, greets the visitors in the foyer. With this work Melitta Moschik seeks to allude to the possibilities of autonomous decisions. Werner Reiterer, in contrast, reflects the exhibition theme in his own highly ironic way by means of three drawings: they concern the daily destruction in street traffic on the one hand, while the artist proposes a provocative installation on the other, which in its execution could have resulted in the de(con)struction of the Kunsthaus. The works can be seen as critical counter-designs to a society of spectacle, and question the meaning of autonomy in the face of a destructive society.

The international tour of Damage Control: Art and Destruction Since 1950 received major funding from the Terra Foundation for American Art, and is also made possible through generous support from the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia and the Japan Foundation.

Tip:

Expanding upon the exhibition in the Kunsthaus Graz, the BRUSEUM is showing the exhibition Damage Control. Body Art and Destruction 1968-1972, which is devoted to a special aspect of artistic destruction: Body Art in its early stages from the angle of Actionist self-harming.

Since the mid-20th century artists of various disciplines have demonstrated a growing interest in the concept of destruction or dismantling. Damage Control examines this theme from a historical perspective.

The art of our time has again and again reflected a world of violence: as a reaction to the two world wars, to the atomic bomb, or to images of annihilation in the media. Destruction pervades art production and has been employed by artists as a means of conveying institutional critique or expressing cultural anxiety while, often, keeping specific emotional or cultural references at a distance.

Damage Control presents a phenomenon that extends beyond art: in particular tracing history from a post war period influenced by American media images, but the exhibition also refers to how today’s fears are determined by current threats such as terrorism and natural disasters - whether real or imagined.

Drawn in part from the Hirshhorn Museum collection, the exhibition brings together groundbreaking works of international significance not just from the branches of painting, film and photography but also from sculpture, installation and performance.

Participating artists:

Ai Weiwei, Roy Arden, John Baldessari, Walead Besthy, Monica Bonvicini, Mircea Cantor, Vija Celmins, Jake und Dinos Chapman, Bruce Conner, Thomas Demand, Luc Delahaye, Sam Durant, Harold Edgerton, Dara Friedman, Cyprien Gaillard, Ori Gersht, Jack Goldstein, Douglas Gordon, Félix González-Torres, Mona Hatoum, Larry Johnson, Yves Klein, Michael Landy, Christian Marclay, Gordon Matta-Clark, Steve McQueen, Gustav Metzger, Raphael Montañez Ortiz, Juan Muñoz, Laurel Nakadate, Yoshitomo Nara, Arnold Odermatt, Yoko Ono, Pipilotti Rist, Ed Ruscha, Thomas Ruff, Joe Sola, Shōmei Tōmatsu, Jean Tinguely, Jeff Wall, Andy Warhol, Christopher Wool

Harold Edgerton, with Germeshausen & Grier, (for the US Atomic Energy Commission), Still from Photography of Nuclear Detonations, 1950s, 16mm Kodachrome film Color and black-and-white. Silent Running time: 11:34 minutes Courtesy MIT Museum

Ori Gersht, Stills from Big Bang I, 2006 Moving image for LCD flat screen 28 ½ x 23 ¼ in. (72.4 x 59.7 cm) Color. Sound Running time: 4:23 minutes Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC, Joseph H. Hirshhorn Purchase Fund, 2008 (08.17) © Ori Gersht. Photo by Lee Stalsworth, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC

Christian Marclay, Still from Guitar Drag, 2000 Video Color. Sound Running time: 14:00 minutes Collection Musée d’Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean, Mudam Luxembourg © Christian Marclay. Courtesy of the Collection Musée d’Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean, Mudam Luxembourg

Gordon Matta-Clark, Window Blow-Out, 1976 (detail) Gelatin silver print 10 ½ x 13 ½ in. Collection Generali Foundation – Permanent loan at Museum der Moderne Salzburg © 2013 Estate of Gordon Matta-Clark/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Courtesy of The Estate of Gordon Matta-Clark and David Zwirner, New York/London; © Bildrecht, Vienna 2014

Joe Sola, A Short Film about Looking, 2010 Video Color. Sound Running time: 4:30 minutes Courtesy of the artist and Blackston, New York Image: Courtesy and © Joe Sola

Jean Tinguely, The Sorceress, 1961 Iron, steel, paint, aluminum, ceramic, copper, hemp, cotton twine, galvanized wire, springs, electrical wire, and rubber, with electric motor Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC, Holenia Purchase Fund, in memory of Joseph H. Hirshhorn, 1988 © 2013 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/ADAGP, Paris, photo by Lee Stalsworth, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC © Bildrecht, Vienna 2014