In "Secret Block", a tribute to Joseph Beuys, the audience take part in a group rite whose symbolic features bring out a magic, primordial, almost sacred quality. Various objects and materials are strewn about a space that resembles the inside of a cave. Through headphones the visitor is given instructions and information by which to interact with them. The idea of a hearth is conjured up by electric plates, while a voice-over speaking of real objects and imaginary sculptures triggers a vision of the invisible as the culmination of a process by which the senses are reconfigured.

Hannes Egger
Secret Block
different objects, headphones, audio track (sound design: Lale Rodgarkia-Dara) 09’46”
2018
Photo: Roberta Segata

Secret Block

"I like Beuys and Beuys likes me" is Egger’s homage to the Joseph Beuys – a large felt cloth in the middle of the hall. The environment is empty, you can hear steps, calls, the wolf living in the woods of the valley, Beuys’ coyote, the preys and the fierce wild beasts. To live with their animality, to rediscover the nature inside the man. To put an end to that assuming the right to impose a radical separation of humanity and animality the man has got aware in the last four centuries, according to Claude Lévi-Strauss.

Hannes Egger
I like Beuys and Beuys likes me
2018
Track (sound design Martin Niedermair), 4 speakers, 2 blankets, led scrolling sign
23’53”
Dimension variable
Photo: Roberta Segata

I like Beuys and Beuys likes me

Like Heidegger’s “Hütte”, far from the city crowd, Egger’s "Kunsthalle Beuys" contains photos and portraits of Beuys by Buby Durini. Beuys’s propaganda machine was exceptional. Posters and photos accompanied his art output, especially the Operation “Difesa della natura”. His aim was to influence society and he saw creativity as man’s precious and unique capital. The roof bears the illuminated sign “Kunsthalle Beuys”, in marked contrast to the chalet itself which is made out of scrap wood.

Hannes Egger
Kunsthalle Beuys
2018
Wood, neon sign, neon light
330x250x250 cm
Photo: Roberta Segata

Kunsthalle Beuys

"Window Performance" was created during the lockdown in the artist’s private apartment. The narrative voice calls for interaction with the outside world through a window. The audio performance is an examination of social distance. The window is understood both as a place of separation and interaction, it is a public and private place at the same time.

Hannes Egger
Window Performance
2020
Audiofile (5’21”, music: mr. coon)
Photo: Stefan Heizinger

Windows Performance

During Art Week coinciding with art fair MIART from 9th to 23rd September a billboard truck toured the streets of Milan. The two sides of the vehicle bore the slogans “Everything’s Changed” and “Nothing’s Changed”, respectively. Many only noticed one of the two large black-and-white messages, unaware that the other side made the opposite statement.

"Everything’s Changed – Nothing’s Changed" is a Hannes Egger project intended for the open-air spaces of Milan city. It involved artist Hannes Egger driving round and round the streets of the Lombard capital for a week.
The project concisely sums up Egger’s thoughts about events these last few months. For the Covid-19 epidemic has indeed abruptly changed millions of people’s lives, for better or worse. Unimaginable situations and possibilities have arisen, and the unimaginable has happened. Some think our world and our relationships have altered quite radically, though whether there has been a real change, whether we have learned our individual and social lessons from the lockdown, still remains to be seen. Much would appear to have remained unaltered, yet plainly we are now all set for a ‘before Covid-19’ and an ‘after (or with) Covid-19’. Everything’s changed and nothing’s changed.

Hannes Egger
Everything’s Changed – Nothing’s Changed
2020
3 canal video, photo
Video and photo: Lorenzo Casali

Everything’s Changed – Nothing’s Changed

"Performance Now" is an invitation to put on the red sweater and perform a clearly defined performance based on Judith Butler’s gender theory and its transfer of the performance concept into the cultural philosophy. According to Butler, gender identity – like identity in general – is not ontologically or biologically given but performative.

Hannes Egger
Performance Now
Bench, print on sweater, headphone, audiofile
2019
Photo: Sarah Mistura

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