In 2006, 1,591 people were executed around the world. They were hanged, shot, beheaded, poisoned, or tortured to death. In China, the country where most executions were carried out, the bodies of delinquents were often used as organ banks. What some view as justified punishment for the protection of human beings and society, o thers consider an affront, a sin against humanity and creation, a violation of human rights. The question of the legitimacy and non-legitimacy of the death penalty – its history and practice from the electric chair to lynchings and vigilantism – has been dividing humanity from the very outset. It fascinates and disgusts people, including artists. The exhibition surveys the questions and answers explored by contemporary artists in connection with the death penalty as an existentialist phenomenon involving human feelings ranging between fear, hate, anger, revenge, shame, forgiveness, and mercy.

Artists |

RAIMUND ABRAHAM | MATTHEW BARNEY | BIGERT and BERGSTRÖM | MARY ELLEN CARROLL | BARBARA CASPAR and ANDREW STANDEN-RAZ | CHIEH-JEN CHEN | STEVEN COHEN | LUCINDA | MANFRED ERJAUTZ | HARUN FAROCKI | BARNABY FURNAS | KEN GONZALES-DAY | MICHAEL HANEKE | MATHILDE TER HEIJNE | GLENN LIGON | THOMAS LOCHER | ADAM MCEWEN | ERROL MORRIS | NICK OBERT HALER | WERNER REITERER | CONSTANZE RUHM | ANDRES SERRANO | ANDY WARHOL |ARTUR ZMIJEWSKI

Curated by Gerald Matt and Abraham Orden Curatorial Consultant | Ilse Lafer Commissioned and Produced by Andreas Stadler Exhibition Coordination| Elisabeth Haider Exhibition Assistance| Natascha Boojar | Marianne Dobner | Henry Grimm| Marie-Theres Posawetz | Maria Simma