Against Method
To celebrate the Generali Foundation鈥檚 twenty-fifth anniversary, three international curators鈥擥uillaume D茅sanges, Helmut Draxler, and Gertrud Sandqvist鈥攅ach composed a show using a unique presentation format to reflect on the Generali Foundation鈥檚 collection and exhibition politics, and thereby examining its contribution to historiography on the basis of institutional work. Guillaume D茅sanges focused on the 鈥減ioneer days鈥� of Conceptual art in the 1960s and 1970s; Helmut Draxler highlighted the complex interrelations between the principles of collecting and exhibition making. And the yearlong anniversary program concludes with Gertrud Sandqvist鈥檚 exhibition Against Method.
The title of the show refers to Paul Feyerabend鈥檚 widely read book Against Method: Outline of an Anarchist Theory of Knowledge (1975), in which the author casts doubt on the scientific ambition to attain knowledge through the application of exact and systematic methods and instead proposes 鈥渋rrational means鈥� as the basis for experimental research. Scientists, he argues, should follow the principle of 鈥渁nything goes鈥� and adapt approaches from the arts to facilitate the spontaneous discovery of theories.
Feyerabend鈥檚 critique came during the heyday of Conceptual art, when artists, for their part, sought to integrate structuralism and scientific methodology into their work. Although the Generali Foundation focuses on Conceptual art and institutional critique, the works in its collection also manifest all those aspects that the idea of 鈥淐onceptualism鈥� would seem to exclude鈥攁esthetics, expression, gesture, physicality, process, or sensations鈥攁nything that cannot be completely translated into signs or systems. On the basis of this dynamic interplay between an approach guided by the idea and one that is attentive to the senses, the curator Gertrud Sandqvist presents a selection of works predicated on the notion of 鈥渆lective affinities.鈥�
With works by Lili Dujourie, VALIE EXPORT/Peter Weibel, Morgan Fisher, Andrea Fraser, Isa Genzken, Andrea Geyer, Dan Graham, Hans Haacke, Mary Kelly, Joachim Koester, David Lamelas, Martha Rosler, Ana Torfs, Franz West, and Heimo Zobernig
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To celebrate the Generali Foundation鈥檚 twenty-fifth anniversary, three international curators鈥擥uillaume D茅sanges, Helmut Draxler, and Gertrud Sandqvist鈥攅ach composed a show using a unique presentation format to reflect on the Generali Foundation鈥檚 collection and exhibition politics, and thereby examining its contribution to historiography on the basis of institutional work. Guillaume D茅sanges focused on the 鈥減ioneer days鈥� of Conceptual art in the 1960s and 1970s; Helmut Draxler highlighted the complex interrelations between the principles of collecting and exhibition making. And the yearlong anniversary program concludes with Gertrud Sandqvist鈥檚 exhibition Against Method.
The title of the show refers to Paul Feyerabend鈥檚 widely read book Against Method: Outline of an Anarchist Theory of Knowledge (1975), in which the author casts doubt on the scientific ambition to attain knowledge through the application of exact and systematic methods and instead proposes 鈥渋rrational means鈥� as the basis for experimental research. Scientists, he argues, should follow the principle of 鈥渁nything goes鈥� and adapt approaches from the arts to facilitate the spontaneous discovery of theories.
Feyerabend鈥檚 critique came during the heyday of Conceptual art, when artists, for their part, sought to integrate structuralism and scientific methodology into their work. Although the Generali Foundation focuses on Conceptual art and institutional critique, the works in its collection also manifest all those aspects that the idea of 鈥淐onceptualism鈥� would seem to exclude鈥攁esthetics, expression, gesture, physicality, process, or sensations鈥攁nything that cannot be completely translated into signs or systems. On the basis of this dynamic interplay between an approach guided by the idea and one that is attentive to the senses, the curator Gertrud Sandqvist presents a selection of works predicated on the notion of 鈥渆lective affinities.鈥�
With works by Lili Dujourie, VALIE EXPORT/Peter Weibel, Morgan Fisher, Andrea Fraser, Isa Genzken, Andrea Geyer, Dan Graham, Hans Haacke, Mary Kelly, Joachim Koester, David Lamelas, Martha Rosler, Ana Torfs, Franz West, and Heimo Zobernig
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