Thomas Hirschhorn : Das Auge

"Das Auge (The Eye) is the title of my exhibition in the Secession. Das Auge has nothing to do with Georges Bataille—who I admire greatly. As an artist, I want to make a work that in no ways bows down to historical facts. With Das Auge I want to give form to this resistance against a form. I want to produce a work that does not bow down to facts and that resists historical facts. And I want to create a universal truth with this form.

Das Auge resists facts, it resists by seeing—by only seeing. The exhibition, the work Das Auge is intended as a postulate. A postulate is an assertion given form. The form of this postulate - Das Auge - consists in the fact that Das Auge sees but Das Auge does not understand. And no one else is expected to understand Das Auge, no one has to be in agreement with the Das Auge, and no one has to enter into contact with Das Auge. Das Auge sees, Das Auge shows, Das Auge names, and Das Auge ‘is’. Das Auge sees and is present, it sees and is thereby present and it is present because it sees.

With Das Auge I want to create the conditions for a dialog or confrontation—in whatever way; that is the assertion – and I want to do this with this work. I want to do it by Das Auge ‘only’ seeing. For ‘only’ seeing facilitates the opening. Opening up for the other, opening up in order to become implicated in the work. Das Auge ‘only’ sees, and it therefore remains autonomous. And Das Auge insists on seeing without understanding.

Das Auge does not see everything—but it sees everything that is red. Das Auge only sees the color red. Thus it can only show red, it can only name red, and it can only ‘be’ red. The red—that Das Auge sees—is the blood of those wounded and killed by war and terror, the red is the blood of slaughtered baby seals, the red is the red of models protesting against the wearing of fur coats, the red is the red of branching capillaries, the red is the red of national coats of arms that use the color red, and the red is the red of cardboard hearts, the red is simply just the color ‘red’.

The color red creates the connection and the point of reference—beyond understanding—and beyond information, beyond opinions, and beyond comment.

Das Auge refuses to see, to show, to name, and to be anything else but Das Auge."