Doubletake
Kollektives Gedächtnis und heutige Kunst

The exhibition focused on the existence of significant images, words and symbols embedded in collective memory, which formed an essential part of artistic production in the late 1980s. The title of the exhibition refers to the ‘dual’ viewing of the works on display: on the one hand as immediate, independent works, and on the other as carriers of symbolic meaning. Memory is not to be seen merely as a personal experience in the seemingly subjective, but rather as a sedimented everyday experience in the collective. Works by 25 international artists were shown in an exhibition architecture designed by Aldo Rossi. Doubletake also embodied the ‘expanded concept of art’ integrated into the Kunsthalle's programme by going beyond the exhibition space: among other things, with the opening featuring a music performance by Christian Marclay (USA) in the large hall of the Vienna University of Technology, with posters in the urban space by Jeff Koons (USA) and Boyd Webb (GB), and in collaboration with ORF, which broadcast the radio play A man in a room gambling by Juan Muñoz and the Balanescu Quartet (E) during the exhibition duration. The exhibition was a modified version of the one shown at the Hayward Gallery in London.