"Under Pain of Death" Exhibition
Austrian Cultural Forum NYC
This event has ended.
In 2006, 1,591 people were executed around the world. They were hanged, shot, beheaded, poisoned, or tortured to death. In China, the country where most executions were carried out, the bodies of delinquents were often used as organ banks. What some view as justified punishment for the protection of human beings and society, others consider an affront, a sin against humanity and creation, a violation of human rights. The question of the legitimacy and non-legitimacy of the death penalty - its history and practice from the electric chair to lynchings and vigilantism - has been dividing humanity from the very outset. It fascinates and disgusts people, including artists. The exhibition surveys the questions and answers explored by contemporary artists in connection with the death penalty as an existentialist phenomenon involving human feelings ranging between fear, hate, anger, revenge, shame, forgiveness, and mercy.
Media
Schedule
from January 22, 2008 to May 10, 2008
Artist(s)
Raimund Abraham, Matthew Barney, Birgert & Bergström, Mary Ellen Carroll, Barbar Caspar & Andrew Standen-Raz, Chieh-Jen Chen, Steven Cohen, Lucinda Devlin, Ken Gonzales-Day, Michael Haneke, Mathilde Ter Heijne, Glenn Ligon, Thomas Locher, Adam McEwen, Errol Morris, Nick OBerthaler, Werner Reiterer, Conxtanze Ruhm, Andres Serrano, Andy Warhol, Artur Zmijewski