"This volume collects writings by Haacke that explain and document his practice. The texts, some of which have never before been published, run from straightforward descriptions to wide-ranging reflections and full-throated polemics. They include correspondence with MoMA and the Guggenheim and a letter refusing to represent the United States at the 1969 São Paulo Biennial."--Provided by publisher
Castles in the Sky (2012), [is] a project devised in Spain specifically for the exhibition at the Museo Reina Sofía. Instead of bringing together a selection of works from the past and adding a new project, Haacke extends his concerns into the present. The social impact of his early works reverberates in the new project, reflecting the extent to which the present is indebted to past actions and decisions. In this show, Haacke continues to pursue his goal of violating the romantic conception of the artwork and testing the limits of the institutions that welcome it."--www.museoreinasofia.es/prensa/area.../haacke/dossier-haacke-en.pdf.
A monograph surveying the storied career of German artist Hans Haacke, on the occasion of a major retrospective exhibition Born in Germany in 1936, Hans Haacke is known for his intellectual and politically engaged art that has long shed light on systems of power. A pioneer of institutional critique, conceptual art, and environmental art, Haacke creates incisive, often site-specific works that call upon the viewer to engage or participate and thereby question invisible structural dynamics at play in society. This book offers an opportunity to revisit the artist's thought-provoking career in light of contemporary culture.
Hans Haacke, nacido en Colonia en 1936, es un pionero de la crítica institucional en el arte conceptual, emergiendo a finales de los años sesenta. Su formación y residencia en Estados Unidos marcan una evolución en su obra, que pasa de un conceptualismo puro a un discurso crítico. Cuestiona los mecanismos de las instituciones culturales, políticas y económicas, revelando su papel en la construcción de valores identitarios e ideológicos que favorecen la globalización. Utiliza elementos cotidianos para crear sistemas de relación, donde el significado crítico surge de la yuxtaposición simbólica, buscando mostrar la conexión entre arte y comportamiento social en lugar de simplemente denunciar. La exposición se divide en dos partes: una muestra de obras previas que analizan el impacto del mercado y la globalización en el arte, como en "The Invisible Hand of the Market" (2009), y la relación entre arte, patrocinio y publicidad en piezas como "Thank you Payne Webber" (1979) y "Global Marketing" (1986-2011). También se aborda el discurso institucional que ve el arte como un lubricante social en obras como "On social Grease" (1975). El proyecto "Castillos en el aire" (2012), creado para el Museo Reina Sofía, refleja la realidad del Ensanche de Vallecas, destacando imágenes de ruinas contemporáneas junto a nombres de movimientos artísticos del siglo XX.
Throughout his career, Hans Haacke has explored the social, political and economic conditions of making, funding, exhibiting and collecting art. When Haacke curated his own legendary Viewing Matters exhibit at the Museum Boijmans van Beuningen in Rotterdam, he brought into focus the often concealed relationship between commerce and high art in a complex installation that included hundreds of pieces of art, merchandising from the museum store and portraits of the previous directors of the museum. In this publication, the artist explores both the dialects of the art exhibition and the socio-economic role of the museum in contemporary society. -- From publisher's description.