Exile of the Imaginary
Politics Aesthetics Love
Publication to the exhibition from January to April 2007.
Ed. by Juli Carson for the Generali Foundation. Preface by Dietrich Karner. Editorial by Sabine Breitwieser. Introduction by Juli Carson. Essays by Juli Carson, Parveen Adams, and Gregory Ulmer. Texts by Andrea Geyer, Ken Gonzales-Day, Sharon Hayes, Adrià Julià, Juan Maidagan, Stephanie Taylor, Kerry Tribe and Bruce Yonemoto.
Exile of the Imaginary showcased artworks and critical writings that ponder the relationship between post-conceptual art practice and the legacy of Roland Barthes's renowned A Lover's Discourse: Fragments. The focus is on Roland Barthes's assertion that love can be a critical "medium" in politically turbulent times. In each of the artworks in the exhibition, the question of desire provides the vehicle for approaching the actual subject matter: a specific cultural event. Art is questioned as a critical mediator of social ruptures, thus removing the dialectical divide between "political" and "lyrical" genres. The publication enhanced the exhibition with a discursive examination of the subject through art historic, psychoanalytic, and linguistic essays as well as a discussion among the artists.
Artists: Andrea Geyer, Ken Gonzales-Day, Sharon Hayes, Adria Julia, LTTR, Dorit Margreiter, Stephanie Taylor, Kerry Tribe, Bruce Yonemoto , Dolores Zinny/Juan Maidagan.