Intro
Protest! Respect! Politics as Aesthetic Category
Kunsthalle St. Gallen, St. Gallen
16 April–17 June 2002
Content
Never have art and politics had so much in common at the visual level and in terms of content as they do today. Politicians are increasingly becoming "mediatized" figures. As a result, when they make their appearance it is primarily an aesthetic event. To a large extent, their success or failure is determined by their appearance in the media. Artists, however, to a large extent thematize politics on the levels of form and content. Not to change the world, or to improve it, but as an aesthetic experience, which is by its very nature challenging. Art and politics do not blend into one (one can search in vain for concrete political slogans in the show); it is about the aestheticization of things political as an artistic statement.
Artists:
Annelise Coste, Atelier van Lieshout, Jens Haaning, Karla Rockmaster K., San Keller, Gianni Motti, Olaf Nicolai, Anri Sala, Shahrzad, Santiago Sierra