JENNY HOLZER USA, 1950
156
JENNY HOLZER was born in 1950 in the city of Gallipolis, Ohio, USA. She studied painting, printmaking, different art techniques and design at Ohio University. She obtained a Master’s Degree in Fine Art from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1977. At that time Holzer began to work on series of phrases exhibited on posters, and later these texts would pass on to different consumer objects such as tickets, stickers, and even street interventions. Her work was presented in the most important museums and art galleries, alternating with urban spaces. In 1987 she participated in Documenta, in Kassel, Germany, and in 1990, 1999, 2005 at 2007, in the Venice Biennial. Her strategic interventions speak on the part of the ill or most vulnerable sectors, rising up against war and violence. She was in charge of designing the official poster for the 56th Cannes Film Festival (2003). Permanent installations of her work can be found at the MAK de Viena (1993), at the Toyota Municipal Art Museum in Japan (1996), at the Museo Guggenheim de Bilbao (1997) and at the Bundestag in Berlin (1999). Amidst her creations, memorials such as Black Garden, in Nordhorn, Germany (1994); the Peace Monument in Erlauf, Austria (1995); the Goerdeler Memorial in Leipzig, Germany (1999) are among those found. In 2009 she exhibited “Protect Protect” at the Whitney Museum in New York. She currently lives and works in the USA.
UNTITLED Text interventions on street furnishings
What is gained by working in public thoroughfares is the surprise experienced by passersby when they find themselves face to face with something unexpected, something with powerful content. This cannot be achieved working in galleries and museums, where it is practically impossible to draw viewers’ attention. On the other hand, in public spaces it is still possible to surprise people in such a way that the possibility still exists to modify their way of thinking a bit, and even to induce them to adopt a given type of attitude. Interventions in public spaces offer greater possibilities to effect change in the world not only because the number of people whose attention can be gained is larger, but also because texts are taken for their content before being discarded as “art”. (Jenny Holzer)