Hans Haacke
Nach allen Regeln der Kunst
Hans Haacke: By all the rules of art
Although Hans Haacke took part in Harald Szeemann’s pioneering exhibition When Attitudes become Form in 1969 and the documenta in 1972 and 1982, his work long remained largely unknown in Germany. This prompted the RealismusStudio working group at nGbK and Kunsthalle Bern to cooperate on a catalogue that departed from the format of previous Haacke monographs, discussing his approach in updated terms and offering the first full bibliography of works in German. Haacke, who emigrated to the United States in the mid-1960s, was important to the curators because he “shifts the borders between art and reality, exploring the current conditions of art in time, society, and history.” By subverting the concepts and strategies used by politics, business, and the media with the aim of revealing their true meanings, Haacke makes surprising links, appealing to viewers to reach their own verdicts, as he explains in an interview. The texts in the catalogue describing individual works were written by the artist himself.
Ed.: nGbK
Work group: Ulrich Giersch, Freya Mülhaupt, Udo Ropohl, Barbara Straka, Ingrid Wagner-Kantuser
With contributions by: Ulrich Giersch, Hans Haacke, Jean-Hubert Martin, Jeanne Siegel, Barbara Straka