Recollecting - Looted Art and Restitution

until sunday february 15 2009
Mak
Austrian Museum of Applied Arts / Contemporary Art
T : (+43-1) 711 36-0
Stubenring 5
A-1010 Vienna
Austria

office@MAK.at

press contact
Teresa-Maria Raninger
T : (+43 1) 711 36 233
presse@mak.at
www.mak.at

Press preview: tuesday, 2 December 2008, 10:30a.m.. Opening: tuesday 2 December 2008, 8:30p.m.
In a show entitled “RECOLLECTING”, the UNLIMITED Association, in cooperation with the MAK, presents art and everyday objects from Jewish possession and their history between robbery and restitution.



Lisl Ponger, Horror vacui, 2008. C-print, 133 x 168 cm © Courtesy Charim Gallery, Vienna

Especially for the exhibition, new artworks were created which put this issue of controversial topicality in a present-day perspective.
The thematic lines of the exhibition, object histories and life-stories of people dispossessed by the Nazis and of their descendants are taken up by inter national artists and reflected in installations, photo and video pieces.
The exhibition features both restituted objects and pieces whose rightful owners are still being searched. The about 100 loans come from private possession in Austria, Great Britain, Switzerland, and the USA as well as from museums and institutions in Austria and abroad and comprise pieces from former collections of paintings and porcelain, but also everyday items such as furniture, books, photographs, and even a car. Confiscation and restitution processes in connection with the exhibits will be traced in terms of selected correspondences, inventory lists, official papers and documents and other materials. The historical documentation will be complemented with the personal dimension of restitution through conversation quotes and video interviews with descendants.