Meditation on Violence

Sixth volume in the series of Friedrichshof Collection exhibition catalogs (ed. by Hubert Klocker)

Rita Ackermann’s works realized for her exhibition at the Sammlung Friedrichshof, “Meditation on Violence,” were created in dialog with works of Viennese Actionism. For Ackermann, the central connection to the Actionist works is primarily the movement by which the images appear and dissolve. Ackermann also proceeds with gestural techniques in her video works by moving the cursor over found footage from the Internet. Her subtle visual language thus takes the theme of power in the media of painting, drawing, video, photography, and performance, revealing itself to the observer’s gaze, and subsequently removing it.
Rita Ackermann, born in Budapest, lives and works in New York. Numerous solo and group exhibitions, among them at the Bonn Kunstverein, Ludwig Múzeum, Budapest, Gagosian Gallery, New York, Hauser & Wirth, New York, Andrea Rosen Gallery, New York, Sammlung Friedrichshof, Zurndorf. Participated in the Whitney Biennial 2008.