Performative Installation« describes a highly topical phenomenon whose artistic characteristics still today demand detailed analysis. Within the field all too unsatisfactorily dubbed »installation art« as a universal genre so to speak, it is precisely the performative and interactive strategies that give the installations their distinctive appearance. In this way the book presents artists and works seeking a synthesis of art event and artwork, of presence and presentation, of immateriality and materiality, ones wishing to capture that fleeting moment as both a generative and constitutive element of the installation. In these performative installations the dialectics of subject and object are annulled as they seek to form a new identity. By holding the exhibitions at five different locations thematically related to the topic different aspects of performative installation are presented through the work of international artists. The exhibitions are independent of each other and it is only through the book that we see an overview of the different aspects of their common theme.

Participating artists: Victor Alimpiev und Marian Zhunin, Emanuelle Antille, Maja Bajevic und Emanuel Licha, BLESS, John Bock, Cosima von Bonin, Monica Bonvicini, Angela Bulloch, Janet Cardiff & George Bures Miller, Brice Dellsperger, Ayse Erkmen, Andreas Fogarasi, Andrea Fraser, Jef Geys, Oliver Hangl, Swetlana Heger, Jeppe Hein, Christine und Irene Hohenbüchler, Stefan Kern, Karl-Heinz Klopf/ Sigrid Kurz, Dorit Margreiter & Anette Baldauf, John Miller, Olaf Nicolai, René Pollesch, Pro qm, Lily van der Stokker, Apolonija Sustersic, Swinger, Heimo Zobernig.

Exhibitions:
Galerie im Taxispalais Innsbruck, 6(9–19/10/2003
Museum Ludwig Köln, 1/11/2003–11/1/2004
Museum für Gegenwartskunst Siegen, 7/11/2003–4/1/2004
Secession Wien, 19/2–18/4–2004
Galerie für Zeitgenössische Kunst Leipzig, 19/9–31/10/2004