The exhibition DU SOLLST DIR EIN BILD MACHEN (YOU SHALL MAKE YOURSELF AN IMAGE) explores the imaginative power of religious experience, its visual counterpart in Christian iconography, and its interpretation by contemporary artists. The focus is on works whose creators approach Christian iconography with a critical but also loving, humorous, and feminist eye, enabling new perspectives on pictorial motifs that have been handed down over centuries. In its conception and orientation, the show does not stand for superficial provocation or loud protest, but rather for a differentiated view, a search for common ground, and an effort to promote a dialogue between contemporary art and religion.
Religion and art are both essential aspects of human nature and deal with fundamental questions about humanity: the question of meaning, the world, our existence. Religion makes the unfamiliar familiar, while art often contrasts the familiar world with an unfamiliar realm. Church and art are also connected by the irrational, the mysterious, and especially the imagination and the power to create a world with its own rules and laws—a world that also reflects back on our lives and tells us about our existence. A variety of these worlds are made visible in DU SOLLST DIR EIN BILD MACHEN (YOU SHALL MAKE YOURSELF AN IMAGE).
Artists: Marina Abramović, Irene Andessner, Anouk Lamm Anouk, Sumi Anjuman, Siegfried Anzinger, Teodora Axente, Ursula Beiler, Renate Bertlmann, Guillaume Bruère, Victoria Coeln, Aron Demetz, Christian Eisenberger, Manfred Erjautz, Valie EXPORT, Paul Sebastian Feichter, Paolo Gallerani, Philipp Haslbauer with Marco Schmid and Aljosa Smolic, Lois Hechenblaikner, Siggi Hofer, Martin Kippenberger, Julia Krahn, Evelyn Kreinecker, Lena Lapschina, Ina Loitzl, Sissa Micheli, Leslie De Melo, Hermann Nitsch, Adrian Paci, Drago Persic, Margot Pilz, Arnulf Rainer, Johannes Rass, Bettina Rheims, Silvie Riant, Thomas Riess, Deborah Sengl, Philipp Haslbauer with Marco Schmid and Aljosa Smolic, Thomas Sterna, Esther Strauss, Andres Serrano, Billi Thanner, Timm Ulrichs, Markus Wilfling
Curated by Günther Oberhollenzer
Curatorial assistance: Miriam King