Reality and fiction, matter and spirit, subject and object - the artist Rebecca Horn constantly blurs these boundaries. Even the different media she uses are not clearly separated but their interweaving is part of her artistic principle. This catalog, published to accompany the artist's comprehensive exhibition at the Bank Austria Kunstforum Wien, is dedicated to this aspect of her work. Essays by renowned authors provide new perspectives on Horn's oeuvre, which spans five decades: from her early body instruments and performances, to her feature films and kinetic sculptures, to her site-specific installations, drawings, and poems. The countless connections to art, literature, and film traditions are illuminated, as well as Horn's proximity to subjects from mythology and myths.

Jurgen Messensee (*1936 in Vienna), one the leading artists of his generation, occupies an important position in the fields of painting and drawing in Austria. Nature is the model for Messensee's work, in particular the human figure, which he dissolves into emblematic forms with an expressive gesture. His works can essentially be regarded as coded appropriations of nature in which manifest symbols such as female swimmers, mouths, or catamarans-distinguishing features of his oeuvre. In recent years Messensee has been supplementing his drawings and paintings with the jet print, greatly enlarging his own drawings and then painting them. In this process, the artist is interested in shifting and manipulating perception: what is real, and what is fiction? This publication presents the various stages of his oeuvre, and texts by Ingried Brugger and Florian Steininger probe its depths.Exhibition schedule: Bank Austria Kunstforum, Vienna, September 4-October 6, 2013