TOTEM and TABOO15. Jan2012
During the time while Vienna Design Week was taking place at the MuseumsQuartier, another exhibition Totem and Taboo was shown as part of the ‘quartier21’ series ‘freiraum quartier21 INTERNATIONAL’, a cooperative effort with the Federal Ministry for European and International Affairs and partners at home and abroad.
TOTEM AND TABOO or Complexity and Relationships Between Art and Design examines the interrelationships between art and design, and also the strategies employed by artists and designers in the bordering and overlapping areas of their respective disciplines.
The exibition was displayed during October-November 2011 and it was curated by Elena Agudio, Bessaam El–Asmar, Tido von Oppeln, and Alexandra Waldburg-Wolfegg.
Artists: Øystein Aasan, Stephane Barbier Bouvet, Paolo Chiasera, Jan De Cock, Martino Gamper, Jeppe Hein, Kueng Caputo, Lisa Lapinski, Rodney LaTourelle & Louise Witthoeft, Kai Linke, Studio Makkink & Bey, Michaela Meise, Mirko Mielke, Manfred Pernice, Gianni Pettena, Bertjan Pot, Stefan Sagmeister, Andrea Sala, Joe Scanlan, Clemence Seilles, Judith Seng & Alex Valder, Jerszy Seymour, Florian Slotawa, Albert Weis, Johannes Wohnseifer, and Heimo Zobernig
Photos by Patrick Moraras.
Totem and Taboo is an exhibition exploring the relationship between art and design. Since the 1960s, artists have been openly influenced by objects and persons from the field of design and have integrated designers items into their works, some of the best-known exponents being Donald Judd, Franz West and Richard Artschwager. Conversely, designers have also appropriated concepts and elements of the art world. The exhibition concentrates on a second generation of artists and designers active today. 
Aligning itself with the popular description of design as “applied art”, Totem and Taboo takes the hypothetical position of art functioning as a close relative of design. That metaphor of “family” brought WAASO, the workgroup of authors and curators responsible for the project, to the title Totem and Taboo. The phrase was coined by Sigmund Freud in 1910, at the very beginnings of modern design. He defines “totem” as an object representing an absent relative, while “taboo” reflects a fear of incest or improper relations within the family. Though not referring directly to art and design, WAASO has interpreted the text as an appropriate model to view the relationship between these two creative disciplines. 
