Gerwald Rockenschaub’s recent installation in the Secession asked us to go beyond the art object to consider the institution in which it is placed. The Secession was founded as a temple to art, and only Gustav Klimt’s Beethoven frieze remains as a testament to that goal. Because of Klimt’s work, this building has become a tourist attraction, an aspect of the site that Rockenschaub views as a basic condition of any exhibition installed here.

As he did in his installations at the Venice Biennale and Zurich’s Galerie Walcheturm, Rockenschaub uses the particularities of the site as a point of departure.