VIENNA.- Inexplicable, passive, and diffuse perception is considered to be one of the last bastions against the growing pressure to be creative and efficient. A revolutionary potential is assigned neither to rational discourse nor to political criticism, but to a kind of aesthetic perception that can only be insufficiently grasped and articulated: one believes to be able to detect traces of the immediate and unrealisable at moments of indecision, hesitation, or carelessness - at moments when one stumbles, loses control or one’s face. Thus pleasure, displeasure, and boredom return into the focus of interest. What is decisive in this context is the role of aesthetic experience, which is referred to as a factor producing emotions and sensations.

The exhibition at Augarten Contemporary is being organised in cooperation with the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts. In the framework of a seminar held by Professor Sabeth Buchmann, the artist and curator Kathi Hofer, and the curator Eva Maria Stadler, the subject of ‘perception’ will be explored together with the Academy’s students.