15 February 2021

Exhibition tip in Vienna, Kunsthalle Wien: Exhibition 'Cybernetics of the Poor' stimulates thoughts about the regulation of societal systems with inbuilt power structures which keep parts of the population poor

Today, the Austrian government announced that businesses like gastronomy, hotels, or fitness centers have to be closed very probably until Easter. On 1st March, the next steps concerning openings will be presented. Museums or art spaces re-opened on 8th February. Some rumours say that the current situation should be used as it's not sure how long it will be possible to visit exhibitions until the next hard lockdown.

Fashion.at searched for an exhibition and found one which throws light on digitalization, big data, the world of finance and the role of society, the people in it. The title of the exhibition is 'Cybernetics of the Poor' and can be viewed until 25 April at Kunsthalle Wien (fast checked today). The exhibition program offers kid's friendly online workshops on selected days in February, March and April where 6 to 12 years old children can playfully co-build the language of the digital world by expressing emotions with self-designed emojis.

'Cybernetics of the Poor' questions self-regulated systems and stimulates thoughts about the regulation of societal systems with inbuilt power structures which keep parts of the population poor. At the exhibition guide (published at the Kunsthalle Wien website's press section in Deutsch, English), the curators introduce into the exhibition's historical sources like American mathematician and philosopher Norbert Wiener, originator of cybernetics. Before visiting the exhibition, it's worth to get information which is available in Deutsch and English, or to book a guided tour for deciphering the artworks such as the one by US artist Kameelah Janan Rasheed who questions extrapolations into the future on the basis of the calculation of the past with reference to the discourse of Black Nihilism, Afro-Pessimism, and religious ideas. At the beginning of the tour video (embedded below), co-curator Diedrich Diedrichsen speaks about the artwork by Kameelah Janan Rasheed.

Image: Installation view of the exhibition 'Cybernetics of the Poor' at Kunsthalle Wien 2020.
Photo: © eSeL.at - Lorenz Seidler.