TURKISH JOKES

2009

TURKISH JOKES refers to Jens Haaning’s work of the same title which he realised in 1994 in public space. It is also Haaning’s work that I have interpreted and adapted to the exhibition space. My own piece was conceived for an exhibition about art in public space, that did not, however, take place in public, but in the classical exhibition space of Kunstraum Niederösterreich in the centre of Vienna.

The genius of Haaning’s Turkish Jokes originates from the fact that in a very simple
but nonetheless effective manner it shows the barriers of language that cross „public
space“ and very often represent social and cultural borders as well. This brings me to assert that public space is not identical with the architectural space of the city, but that it has to be conceived of as a space defined by language.

This reading of Haaning’s work is represented in my own piece: by retelling the work I am transferring it from urban space in which it took place to the area of language (the one defined by the printed word) and from the public space back to the exhibition room. Using the form of sculptural paper stacks coined by Felix Gonzalez Torres is also the attempt to create a public beyond the limits of the exhibition space. Like it’s the case with Gonzalez Torrez’s stacks visitors can take the posters home.