Protections forces attention on social relations; their ephemeral and chance nature and the urge we have for stability and social order, it brings into focus this obsessive hanging-on to a threatened and damaged security and our longing for care and comfort. This is in fact not an exhibition at all. Conceived as a situational, living project Protections strikes theatrical sparks, it focuses attention on the exhibition as a flowing, interactive format in a process of coming into being that simply does not exist without the presence of those who visit it.
Protections is a polyphonic edifice, an arrangement of changing, self-questioning multiplicity: from architectural interventions, performances, theatrical forms and performative installations through to film, conceptual and discursive studies. The complex and provocative architecture of the Gutshaus Kranz as well as the social and cultural milieu of the city constitute the matrix for all artistic approaches gathered within this project.
The exhibition is an experience that is renewed on a daily basis.
With works by:
Cezary Bodzianowski, The Centre Of Attention, Katrina Daschner, Elmgreen & Dragset, Tim Etchells, Vlatka Horvat, Christian Jankowski, Marysia Lewandowska & Neil Cummings, Katarina Löfström, Daria Martin, Kris Martin, Frédéric Moser & Philippe Schwinger, Warren Neidich, Roman Ondak, Elisabeth Penker, Philippe Rahm, Markus Schinwald & Oleg Soulimenko, Dejan Spasovik, Apolonija Šušteršic, Mark Wallinger, Markus Weisbeck, Herwig Weiser.
A comprehensive reader in English and German accompanies the exhibition. With contributions from Marius Babias, Zygmunt Bauman, Beatrice von Bismarck, Adam Budak, Jordan Crandall, Claire Doherty, Jean Fisher, Elisabeth Grosz, Nikolaus Hirsch, Veronica Kaup-Hasler, Peter Pakesch, Christine Peters, Irit Rogoff, Stefan Römer, Renata Salecl and Michael Terman.