"I prefer to contradict myself rather than to repeat myself." Maria Lassnig
With this self-confident and deliberately provocative statement once made by Maria Lassnig, viewers are catapulted right into the heart of her lifelong existential artistic investigation. Engaged in clear-eyed reflection through both language and pictures, Lassnig creates an oevre which, with its extreme independence, dissects current artistic discourse and at the same time unsparingly reveals her own state of mind. It is in this sense that the exhibition title "Wach bleiben", Staying Altert, is to be understood; it not only means "not becoming tired" on a physical level, but also holds in readiness a variety of further readings. Lassnig's constantly searching, deeply creative investigation of the theme of (self-)perception, accomplished in painting and drawing, in language and in film, suggests that she does not make herself or us "comfortable," that both the process of creating the works and the reception of them challenge an intellectual and emotional spark.
Featuring texts by Stefanie Kreuzer, Stephan Berg, Michael Hagner and Siri Hustvedt
