Mona Hahn :
"Wenn Du die Kunst genießen willst, musst Du ein künstlerisch gebildeter Mensch sein."

"If you want to enjoy art you must be an artistically cultivated person".
This quotation from Karl Marx in the form of carved wood, completed in 1965 by a working class artist in the German Democratic Republic is at the centre of Mona Hahn's installation. The space was divided into two by the insertion of a ceiling. The lower space occupied about two thirds, while the other third above could not be accessed but was visible through the large glass panel on the end wall of the Kunstraum. Mona Hahn's intervention was a critical commentary on mistaken developments in public art, both in artists' approaches as well as in the expectations of the public. The allusion is to the conspicuous consensus that has in the meantime arisen among many artists for a method of working adopted for public/political/social space whereby social inequalities are sought in situ and addressed that are usually known to everybody living locally anyway. "Art that neglects its formal language to achieve political goals is at best illustrated politics, but it's not political art" (Mona Hahn).

The quotation from Marx, and so Hahn's work, also addresses the problem of a frequent lack of acceptance for art, especially in public space. Marx does not speak of understanding art but of the enjoyment that remains the reserve of the artistically cultivated — which succinctly explains the disappointment felt at frequently not being able to participate in the "enjoyment" of art. The existing yearning is accordingly proven all the more clearly, which is what Mona Hahn emphasises with her work.
(Michael Kienzer)