Playing Rules! The Collections

Playing Rules! The collections
Mönchsberg, level 1

Play is a special way of experiencing the world. It is a metaphor for social coexistence and a driver of cultural transformation. Enjoyable play helps us discover ourselves, our individual qualities, and abilities. Free play, meanwhile, can often turn bitterly serious. Playful contests let us experience social cooperation and competition. We learn how rules and systems operate and what it means to bend and break them.

The exhibition Playing Rules! centers on the theme of play in art. From nature, the body, and sport to communication and media imagery, these are just some of the areas artists explore through play, transforming them by way of interaction and improvisation. They show how art uses imagination to expand the limits of the possible and the potential of play in representing and, not infrequently, subverting social relationships.

With works by Marc Adrian, Josef Bauer, VALIE EXPORT, Harun Farocki, Nilbar Güreş, Hans Haacke, Jürgen Klauke, Julius Koller, Edward Krasiński, Sigalit Landau, Angelika Loderer, Dorit Margreiter Choy, Dóra Maurer, Robert Rauschenberg, Christa Sommerer & Laurent Mignonneau, Franz West