Hans-Jürgen Hafner was nominated curator of this year’s special exhibition. His show „Difference, what difference?“ will focus on the meaning and value of art, reflecting its controversial function in the existing framework of market and discourse.

Concept
by Hans-Jürgen Hafner

The group exhibition “Difference, what difference?” addresses the general question of the value and significance of art. For this reason, the showing reflects upon its special function as a mediating situation on the front between the market and discourse.

The curated special exhibition in the framework of the Art Forum Berlin has established itself as a joint venture of a kind that so far has been unusual in the carousel of international art fairs. This joint venture between economic and discursive mediation is typical of the picture the art market currently presents: namely, “art fair” and “thematic exhibition” can stand for the evaluation systems of the “market” and of “discourse”, which are often described as competing.
Between them is decided how art is valued and what makes it significant.

For this reason, the exhibition consciously examines its own framework conditions and poses a number of fundamental questions:

How can a curated thematic exhibition appear when interwoven locally and institutionally with a fair situation?
What distinguishes an exhibition display from the display at an art fair?
How can artistic works with substantive weighting be shown if they are offered for sale as a commodity at the same time?
What effects does this have on the production and mediation of art?

In this way, “Difference, what difference?” presents itself as a model for approaching the precarious situation, the issue of the significance of art, and makes this situation productive. The showing will argue historically: works by artists from different generations will be brought into relationship with each other. The common denominator is the artistic processing of the aesthetically and art-historically canonized procedures of “Institutional Critique” and “Appropriation Art”.
The investigative field of “Institutional Critique” is suited to reveal the connections between artistic production, the way it is mediated, and its economic and discursive use. Numerous artists of the middle and younger generations are currently taking up, formally and conceptually, the practices of “Institutional Critique”, often with great sensitivity to the growing effects of economic imperatives and the accompanying demands on oneself.
“Appropriation” is a fundamental structural trait of artistic work. But as an art-historical genre in the narrow sense, it is drawing increasing interest, precisely as criticism of traditional ideas of authorship and originality while the market still displays its unsatisfied “hunger for pictures”.

The showing presents artistic works and objects, methods and procedures not only in consideration of formal aspects, medium, and technique. Special attention is also paid to the respective examination of the circumstances of production, mediation, and use. These circumstances become visible in the exhibition and are discussed in greater detail in the accompanying catalog texts.

 List of artists and galleries

Bettina Allamoda
Galerie Zwinger, www.zwinger-galerie.de
Ian Anüll
Mai 36 Galerie AG, www.mai36.com
Robert Barry
Sfeir Semler, www.sfeir-semler.de
Marcel Broodthaers
Erna Hécey Gallery, www.ernahecey.com
Victor Burgin
Galerie Thomas Zander, www.galeriezander.com
Jacques Charlier
Galerie Nadja Vilenne, www.nadjavilenne.com
Simona Denicolai / Ivo Provoost
Tatjana Pieters/OneTwenty Gallery, www.onetwenty.be
Sylvie Fleury
Galerie Mehdi Chouakri, www.mehdi-chouakri.com
Irene Fortuyn
Galerie Diana Stigter, www.dianastigter.nl
Andrea Fraser
Galerie Christian Nagel, www.galerie-nagel.de
Peter Friedl
Erna Hécey Gallery, www.ernahecey.com
General Idea
Mai 36 Galerie AG, www.mai36.com
Sabine Groß
magnus müller, www.magnusmuller.com
Thomas Huber
Galerie Akinci, www.akinci.nl
Luis Jacob
SEPTEMBER Oliver Koerner von Gustorf und Frank Müller GbR, www.september-berlin.com
Josef Kramhöller
Galerie Kienzle & Gmeiner GmbH, www.kienzle-gmeiner.de
Matthieu Laurette
Deweer Art Gallery, www.deweerartgallery.com
Louise Lawler
Galerie Six FriedrichLisaUngar, www.sixfriedrichlisaungar.de
Klaus Merkel
Galerie Thomas Flor, www.galerieflor.de
Verena Pfisterer
Galerie Kienzle & Gmeiner GmbH, www.kienzle-gmeiner.de
Falke Pisano
Ellen de Bruijne Projects, www.edbprojects.nl
Charlotte Posenenske
Galerie Mehdi Chouakri, www.mehdi-chouakri.com
Kelly Schacht
hoet bekaert gallery, www.iets.be
Lasse Schmidt Hansen
Galerie Reinhard Hauff, www.reinhardhauff.de
Noé Sendas
Cristina Guerra Contemporary Art, www.cristinaguerra.com
Milica Tomic
CHARIM Galerie, www.charimgalerie.at
Nadim Vardag
Georg Kargl, www.georgkargl.com
Andy Warhol
Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac GmbH, www.ropac.net
Stephen Willats
Galerie Christian Nagel, www.galerie-nagel.de
Vadim Zakharov
Gallery Marina Goncharenko, www.gmggallery.com
Elmar Zimmermann
Galerie Kienzle & Gmeiner GmbH, www.kienzle-gmeiner.de
Heimo Zobernig
Slg. Daimler, www.sammlung.daimlerchrysler.com

Hans-Jürgen Hafner

Hans-Jürgen Hafner was born in 1972 in Freystadt. After studying History and German literature, he since 2000 works as a freelance curator and author. In 2004, he curated the exhibition eclipse + other chance appearances, with Euan Macdonald and Robert Smithson at the Kunstbunker Nuremberg, 2005 followed the group exhibitions dead/undead at gallery Six Friedrich Lisa Ungar, Munich, and unburied/reburied, also at Kunstbunker Nuremberg.

In 2006 he curated the exhibition The Most Contemporary Picture Show, Actually (Kat.), with René Daniëls, Michael Krebber and Klaus Merkel at Kunsthalle Nuremberg. He is a regular contributor to the magazine of the online platform www.artnet.de and the Austrian art review spike art quarterly and regularly publishes in artist Kunstmagzain, Camera Austria and Kunstforum International. Hans-Jürgen Hafner recently moved to Berlin and lectures at the HBG Leipzig in the media arts department (since 2003), and is also at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam.

Photo by Stefan Maria Rother
Copyright Messe Berlin 
Publication free of charge - File copy requested

Archive of Former Special Exhibitions