50/50 (Completion of GRUPPENBILD 2)
Postperformative Artefact
Primary object: Main group participation result.
25 × 25 × 3 cm, multiplex birch, glass, gold-coloured magnets, nails
Result of an 8-year process, performance/action and audience participation
Started in 2014 and finished in 2023, Galerie Krinzinger Schottenfeld, Vienna
The work can be seen as an autonomous, standalone artwork, but also functions as the continuation and completion of Gruppenbild 2 and as part of the ongoing process, long-term performance, and research structure Stand der Materie.
Secondary object: Visitors participation result.
“50/50” _ GRUPPENBILD 2 / Part 2 (completion – continuation 2023)
Action / Performance: 50/50, materialisation (together with the audience)
03.03.2023 / Galerie Krinzinger Schottenfeld / Vienna
The action/performance 50/50 was carried out on 03.03.2023 at Galerie Krinzinger Schottenfeld. It concerned the completion / continuation of the work Das Gruppenbild 2, which had been initiated on 10.12.2014 in the same gallery together with the audience.
After eight years, at this event, the context and the history of the work’s emergence were presented in the form of an installation consisting of photographs, texts, books, objects, etc. During the action itself, alongside the ritual and symbolic part, a materialisation came into being. A historical event was stored in an object, a post-performative artefact. An abstract object was created, but also a carrier of history and potential.
All 50 participants in the 2014 performance were contacted after eight years and asked whether they would like to take part in the continuation / completion of the work. Those who could be reached and were interested in participating were given the option of taking part either in person or digitally.
The action took the form of a coin toss. Each result (heads or tails) was documented and later transferred onto an object. People who had not taken part in the first part of the performance in 2014, but who appeared in person this time as visitors, were also given the opportunity to participate. As a counter-gesture for a coin toss, small cards (documents) were issued showing the result (heads / tails), the title of the action/performance, the date, and the place. In this group as well, the results were transferred onto a separate object / post-performative artefact.
