Auf den Leib geschrieben

The first exhibition at the temporary Kunsthalle Wien in the Museumsquartier (in the rooms of Hall F, which was demolished in 2000) focused on the body as a place and frame for language and writing. Since the 1960s, unease about the one-dimensionality of alphabetic systems has prompted an entire generation of artists to analyse physical expression as a non-verbal alternative, ultimately resulting in diverse combinations of body, images and words. Over the last thirty years, the discourse has changed, moving away from process-oriented body work as material for a language of the unconscious towards a practice that actively uses words and body images to implement socio-political or personal strategies. The works on display focus on women as subjects, objects and projections. They call for the exploration of identity as a central subject of artistic insight into the dichotomy of body/nature and language/culture.