Abstract form can no longer be perceived as non-relational or non-representative. By the very fact that today it will, also, and at all times, refer back to its own history, it establishes, in the final analysis, its own narration, and stands in contradistinction to its original endeavour of only ever referring to itself.

The potential of abstraction no longer lies in the attempt at finding exclusive answers; it presents itself, rather, in a manner of raising questions regarding a number of translation processes and variable, interactive links between production, reception and context, as seen in relation to their history. It is, therefore, these frequently obscured and not always immediately visible transformations, which have here become the subject of investigation.

Both the belief in a universal aesthetic brought about by abstraction, and the aim of revealing a transcendent order of things, can now be viewed only in a historical light. The desire to strive for a universal form is already contradicted by the single fact of the collaborative practice of all the participants in this exhibition, identifying their artistic production as an inter-subjective process.

In a manner comparable to the systems theoretical or linguistic approach, where a variety of subjects are broken down into abstract and yet alterable signifiers in the process of generating understanding, here the complexity of the socio-economic realities and their ever-increasing levels of abstraction is similarly scrutinised and put to the test.

The visualization of such translational and interpretational activities projects the idea of an unstable, variable object. The city, the economy, and language, all form starting points for an interest in something that is not ineluctably visible, but lies at the foundation of these built-up structures or sculptural objects and co-determines their reception.