Author Description

In 2019, the Gesellschaft für Moderne Kunst am Museum Ludwig awarded the Wolfgang Hahn Prize to Jac Leirner. For many years now, the work of the Brazilian artist (b. 1961 in São Paulo) has engaged in a subtle analysis of social and representational systems. Found, often industrially produced everyday objects play an important role here; following the principle of collecting, accumulating, and classifying, Leirner uses them to create installations, collages, and sculptures.0Jochen Volz, director of the Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo and guest juror for the 2019 Wolfgang Hahn Prize, explains the jury?s decision:?Jac Leirner is one of the most important exponents of Conceptual Art today as well as of so-called Institutional Critique. Since the 1980s her sculptures, paintings, and installations have questioned the notion of the original and the value of artworks. She assimilates found, collected, and even stolen objects, most of which are industrially produced. The work Museum Bags (1985/2018), for instance, consists of a collection of ordinary plastic bags that she purchased at various museum stores. Here, the bags, which are typically used by visitors to transport a souvenir from a public museum to their private space, become part of a large-scale collage.? 00Exhibition: Museum Ludwig, Köln, Germany (10.04. - 25.08.2018).