Untitled

by Maria Anwander

Many of Maria Anwander’s works are destructions of pictures, their (text-)fragments can get finalized from the recipient by imagination. They invite for an active viewing and allow the reconstruction of former maintained performances. Long-established hierarchies within the art-world as well as authorship and authenticity of art get questioned. In Untitled (Performance) she installed three plaques in public space, one in New York, one in Mexico City and the third in Vienna. Each of them explained the performance, which was nothing else but traveling from one City to the other to mount each plaque. Also mentioned was that the work was state-financed. This deliberately created transparency evokes a discourse between those who work in the field of art with their dependent on public support and the rest of the society, whose attitude often is diametrically opposed.