Haus – Rucker – Co Live again

With the exhibition Haus-Rucker-Co Live again the Lentos shows the centerpiece of the exhibition staging of Live from 1970*.

The exhibition centers around a giant billiard ball, a white pneumatic mattress 15 x 15 meters large and one meter high with three inflated balls made of PVC. The mattress can work as a stage, on which the people become actors in the scene. Within the framework of this intervention, the point at that time was to break open the perspective immanent to the museum and to playfully question the status of the recipient at the same time. The museum as a playground? Today, almost forty years later, the expectations of the visitors have changed: in addition to the basic functions of a museum, high quality entertainment has become a standard.

In the 1960s the young architects and artists left their studio with the intention of changing society. With the first moon landing, technical progress seemed boundless. This development led to a sense of setting out for new horizons, loudly attracting attention, evincing a joy in experimentation and an interest in new materials, and resulting in a transregional response from the media.

The group Haus-Rucker-Co (authors 1970: LAURIDS, ZAMP, PINTER)* became active in the space of the museum and in public space: it was a time of expanding consciousness and arranging urban space. Prototypes for new ideas for living were created, influenced by new building materials, and proposals for redesigning people’s living space.

The exhibition of the architect-artist group is expanded with objects and graphic works from the Lentos Collection and loaned works from the Museum of Modern Art Ludwig Foundation Vienna, the artists’ archives, private archives, and others.

Original films and literature from the Lentos Library about the artists and their context round out the show.

A catalogue is published for the exhibition, which is availalbe in the Lentos Shop for EUR 18,-.

Haus-Rucker-Co

1992 Haus-Rucker-Co founded by Günter Zamp Kelp, Laurids Ortner and Klaus Pinter in Vienna

1993 Opening of Studios in Düsseldorf and New York

1994 Joined by Manfred Ortner

1995 Independent studios Haus-Rucker-Co, Düsseldorf (with Laurids Ortner, Günter Zamp Kelp and Manfred Ortner) and Haus-Rucker-Inc. New York (with Klaus Pinter, Caroll Michels and others)

1996 Haus-Rucker-Inc. New York disbanded. Start of independent work by Klaus Pinter as a freelance artist and Caroll Michels as a writer Haus-Rucker-Co, Düsseldorf disbanded

1987 Opening of independent architectural firms by Laurids Ortner, Manfred Ortner (http://​www​.ortner​.at/) and Günter Zamp Kelp (http://​www​.zamp​-kelp​.com/) in Düsseldorf.

* Live, Museum of the 20th Century, Vienna, 07 February to 15 March 1970

* 1971 joined by Manfred Ortner