Texts by Hans Haacke that range from straightforward descriptions of
his artworks to wide-ranging reflections on the relationship between art
and politics.
Hans Haacke's art articulates the interdependence of multiple elements.
An artwork is not merely an object but is also its context--the
economic, social, and political conditions of the art world and the
world at large. Among his best-known works are MoMA-Poll (1970), which
polled museumgoers on their opinions about Nelson Rockefeller and the
Nixon administration's Indochina policy; Gallery-Goers' Birthplace and
Residence Profile (1969), which canvassed visitors to the Howard Wise
Gallery in Manhattan; and the famously canceled 1971 solo exhibition at
the Guggenheim Museum, which was meant to display, among other things,
works on two New York real estate empires.
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; the title piece, "Working Conditions," which
discusses corporate influence on the art world; Haacke's thinking about
"real-time social systems"; and texts written for museum catalogs on
various artworks, including GERMANIA, in the German Pavilion of the
1993 Venice Biennial; DER BEVÖLKERUNG (To the Population) of 2000 at
the Berlin Reichstag; Mixed Messages, an exhibition of objects from
the Victoria and Albert Museum (2001); and Gift Horse, unveiled on the
fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square in 2015.
