Book launch: Hungry for Time

The publication Hungry for Time documents the exhibition of the same name Hungry for Time. An Invitation to Epistemic Disobedience with Raqs Media Collective, in the Art Collections of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, on view from October 9, 2021, to February 27, 2022, and extends it through the medium of a book.

On the occasion of the Academy's re-opening at Schillerplatz, the rectorate invited the internationally active curatorial trio Raqs Media Collective from Delhi to critically re-examine the collections from a decolonial perspective and to curate an exhibition. In the historical setting of the Paintings Gallery and the house's central auditorium, Raqs Media Collective staged a show that approached the theme of time from the perspective of hunger and desire with over 100 historical works from the holdings of the Paintings Gallery, the Plaster Cast Collection and the Graphic Collection — such as Willem van Aelst, Hieronymus Bosch, Albrecht Dürer, Thomas Ender, Maria Sibylla Merian or Egon Schiele — and with numerous contributions by international contemporary artists such as Discursive Justice Ensemble, Nilbar Güreş, Lavanya Mani, Ryan Presley and Splice.

The book condenses the ten scenes of the exhibition in which the curators explored the titular "hunger for time". These exhibition scenes have been transferred to the book with over 500 illustrations and arranged in surprising ways so that the exhibition can be experienced anew. An eleventh scene extends the book beyond the show: this scene inaugurates the publication and juxtaposes historical works with contemporary artistic contributions by Chow and Lin, Discursive Justice Ensemble, Moonis A. Shah, and Splice.

In their contributions to the book, Raqs Media Collective elaborate on their curatorial proposal, responding to an invitation from the Academy, and their curatorial approach: "To look at a collection is also to hear the world that is not present, but whose rumbling can be sensed. It is when we tune in to that ferment that we sense the dormant, the infectious, the aborted, the over-determined, the under-lived, the contagion, the broken, the stubborn, and the silent."

Rector Johan F. Hartle and Vice-Rector Ingeborg Erhart discuss in their contributions, among other things, the invitation policy and situate the exhibition in the context of the Academy as an educational institution and the history of the art collections. In addition, they look at students' artistic contributions, which were developed in dialogue with Raqs Media Collective and shown in the exhibition Thicket of Ideas – Thicket of Times, curated by Stephanie Damianitsch.

Publication
Hungry for Time

Eds. Ingeborg Erhart, Johan F. Hartle and Raqs Media Collective (with Shveta Sarda), associated ed. Barbara Mahlknecht

With contributions by Chow and Lin, Discursive Justice Ensemble, Ingeborg Erhart, Johan F. Hartle, Moonis Ahmad Shah, Raqs Media Collective, Splice and an image series by Nicole Six and Paul Petritsch

German and English, 336 p., 508 color and b&w illustrations, softcover

Spector Books, Leipzig  

ISBN Dt. 978-3-95905-555-0

ISBN Engl. 978-3-95905-556-7

The publication is available in the store of the Paintings Gallery for 38,00 Euros.