HANS HAACKE: WIRKLICH – WERKE 1959–2006
18 November 2006 – 14 January 2007
www.adk.de
Wirklich in English would mean something
like an assertive ‘really’. But you can’t trace the ‘real’ in the German
word, there is no notion of a general form of reality. Rather the word stems
from wirken: dwelling, doing, creating – a subtle reminder that reality is
(like art) a social practice of negotiation, and possibly just a
performative system of affirmation.
Haacke’s work has always received much public attention, from his famous
piece Shapolsky et al. Manhattan Real Estate Holdings, a Real Time Social
System, as of May 1, 1971, that led to the scandalous cancellation of his
solo show at New York’s Guggenheim Museum, to the smashed stone floor cum
swastika at the German pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 1993, to his
gigantic flower bed piece, Der Bevölkerung [For the Population] (2000), at
the Deutsche Bundestag. Filled by the MPs themselves with samples of soil
from their constituencies, it divided the parliament to such a degree that
the political body representing the people of Germany went on to hold a
highly polemical debate about the intentions of work and artist, and
question the difference between the German people and the populace of
Germany.
Raising questions like these, Haacke’s work had the most poignant social
effect by spurring public debate. Even if there are moments of recognition,
say in that the current real estate situation in certain districts of Berlin
can be regarded as bearing resemblance to the gentrification witnessed then
(and now) in Manhattan, one can’t help noticing that looking back on these
works, through the presentation of this double retrospective, with all the
explanations required, it finally ends up looking like an angry history
museum.
So, while Haacke’s anger and concern remain traceable in his more recent
installations, the rare chance in this show is to see the artist’s early
work which appears comparatively detached from the real world – scientific
and minimal even. These pieces, in all their simplicity, such as the sealed
glass cube filled with water, evaporating and condensing, convey the
research material that led the artist to develop his concept of ‘real time
systems’ that he applied with so much vigour in his later years. At the same
time, it is also surprising to see to what extent artists like Olafur
Eliasson are indebted to Haacke’s early research. Even more surprising
maybe, is to find out how sharp the tools were that Haacke could forge based
on this research.
Andreas Schlaegel