Is art intelligent entertainment? Why is contemporary art so popular? Are current exhibition formats contemporary at all? What are the key criteria for good art?
For three weeks, Attention Economy transforms Kunsthalle Wien Museumsquartier into a trail and a discursive platform. The exhibition presents answers, ranging from the startling to the critical, by international artists to pressing questions relating to contemporary art and the art business.
The title references Georg Franck’s book of the same name, published in 1998, in which he establishes that attention has become a limited resource and an economic commodity. The exhibition carries this idea into the present and asks what influence the digitized world, the increasingly international art market and the growing popularity of contemporary art are having on artists and their current art production.
An exhibition display presents the interviews, embeds the texts in a graphic system and opens up different routes through the exhibition. Attention Economy is accompanied by a diverse program of events with theme evenings, filmscreenings and discussions with artists.
Participating artists: Allora & Calzadilla, Leonor Antunes, Julieta Aranda, Fikret Atay, Mirosław Bałka, Alexandra Bircken, Candice Breitz, Cäcilia Brown, Ernst Caramelle, Kwan Sheung Chi, Chto Delat?, Marieta Chirulescu, Claire Fontaine, Plamen Dejanoff, Verena Dengler, Carola Dertnig, Marius Engh, Cevdet Erek, Ayşe Erkmen, Elmgreen & Dragset, Gelatin, Eva Grubinger, Ibro Hasanović, Mathilde ter Heijne, Vlatka Horvat, Šejla Kamerić, Gülsün Karamustafa, Hassan Khan, Alicja Kwade, Sonia Leimer, Mark Lewis, Ken Lum, Renzo Martens, Haroon Mirza, Aki Nagasaka, Sophie Nys, Nick Oberthaler, Damir Očko, Ahmet Öğüt, Ragnar Helgi Olafsson, Jorge Pardo, Laure Prouvost, Pamela Rosenkranz, Georgia Sagri, Margaret Salmon, Tomás Saraceno, Hans Schabus, Eva Schlegel, Timur Si-Qin, Juliane Solmsdorf, Tobias Spichtig, Kamen Stoyanov, Martha Stutteregger, Philipp Timischl, David Zink Yi, Wong Wai Yin, Anna Witt
Concept: Nicolaus Schafhausen, Vivien Trommer
Coordination Denkfabrik: Belinda Hak
Curator Public Program: Vanessa Joan Müller
Graphic design: Boy Vereecken