Extra Bodies - The Use of the 'Other Body' in Contemporary Art

Extra Bodies investigates an artistic phenomenon that appeared often in the 1990s, characterised by artists using «other bodies» for their works and making their «vitality» central. These works are all performance-based or of performative nature. The exhibition focuses on works in which the exhibited artists make use of the «other bodies» on the basis of their respective specific social roles, thus making the societal dimension a constituent element of the work – these «other bodies» can also be described as «extras». In multiple exhibition sections, which span both floors of the museum and incorporate many works from the museum's collection, light is shed on this phenomenon, and artworks from the 1960s to the present day are brought together by way of example. Most of all, the transition from the use of a «bio-political» body to a «psycho-political» body, as seen over the last 30 years, is in the foreground