Hans Haacke und Pierre Huyghe
Since the 1960s, artists have questioned the traditional idea of opposition between art and nature. They have incorporated animals and plants as co-actors in their work, and so established a sculptural aesthetic of the living, which called for a redefinition of the sculptural genre. This study is the first to examine so-called Non-Human Living Sculptures using the examples of Hans Haacke and Pierre Huyghe. Following a re-reading of the historiography of modernist sculpture, the author re-evaluates and expands on existing theories in individual work analyses. She shows how Haacke’s real-time systems, determined by US systems theory, biology and cybernetics, as well as his rejection of the object aesthetic have shaped contemporary positions such as Huyghe’s situational-aesthetic works.
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First comprehensive academic study of socalled Non-Human Living Sculptures
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Re-reading of the historiography of 20th century sculpture
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Sculptural aesthetics of the living
Ursula Ströbele has been Professor of Art Studies with a focus on contemporary art at the Braunschweig University of Art since October 2023. Prior to this post, she worked as a research associate at Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte Munich. In 2019 she was curatorial director of the Kunstverein Arnsberg. In 2019/20 she curated the exhibition, Hans Haacke. Kunst Natur Politik (ZI Munich, Städtisches Museum Abteiberg, Mönchengladbach). From 2012–2018 she worked as a research associate at Berlin University of the Arts, where she co-founded the Scientific Network Theory of Sculpture. In 2010, she completed her PhD at Heinrich Heine University in Düsseldorf with a thesis on the sculptural admission pieces of the Royal Academy in Paris (1700–1730). In 2020, she was awarded her Habilitation for the thesis Extension of the Sculptural. Analyses and Theories of Current Border Phenomena: Non-Human Living Sculptures since the 1960s. Hans Haacke and Pierre Huyghe.