"Protocols of the Exhibition "Points of Reference 38/88

Points of Reference considers as a catalyst for the present, not as a systematic coming-to-terms with the past, but as a look back from the perspective of modern consciousness, because history does not repeat itself. Therefore, interest in the subject matter determines the work's form. Aesthetic qualities are not set beforehand, but result from intellectual abilities which emerge in a very specific context. Points of Reference would like to avoid spectacular, artistic decorations of the city; it considers public space not as a museum without walls but as an intellectual space of action, so that technocratic-normative control can be resisted, at least temporarily. There are neither restrictions nor prescriptions with regard to the media that the artists should use. The task is to find, independent of movements and fashions, contemporary signs whose effectiveness and impact are to be tested in their direct confrontation with an urban public. The starting point is the specific (historical, intellectual, spatial) situation. The work of art results from confronting this environment. The choice of places, which were points of reference for the Nazi regime -and are in some cases now marked as such, but in others only now being brought back to memory represents the historical dimension. (Thus, the logical places for art in the city were not chosen.) The creative use made of these places constitutes the artistic contribution

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