Detail

This photograph is titled “Museum of Modern Art Ludwig Foundation Vienna” / “Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien”, taken in the very same place where it is now on display. In the 1970ies, its author, Candida Höfer had begun to take pictures of interiors of institutions: of libraries, museums, collections, and operas – all of which places that don’t just preserve a society’s scientific and cultural memory, but places that represent it. Höfer refrains from commenting on her work. Instead, she focuses on perceptional aspects: light, perspective and point of view, furnishings, as well as the relation of objects in the picture. Höfer took her pictures of the mumok back in 2007, in an exhibition titled “Concept, Action, Language”, where works of Fluxus, Pop and Concept Art exemplified the demise of classical conceptions of art. The works are not conventionally hung on the wall, either, but rather presented in interlocking spatial axes. In the foreground, Robert Indiana’s “LOVE Rising, Black and White Love” is predominant. Projectors have been mounted; other artworks are only partially visible. It’s not Höfer’s photograph alone, but both the photo and the exhibition that take an unconventional perspective on art and traditional historiography. Thus, the past exhibition from 2007 re-inserts itself into every present-day exhibition displaying Höfer’s work, challenging comparison.