Hans Haacke: Information Flow

This exhibition is the first major retrospective in Asia devoted to Hans Haacke (b. 1936, Cologne, Germany), a pioneering figure whose practice transformed contemporary art into a critical investigation of the systems and relationships that shape society. Haacke played a key role in the development of Conceptual art in New York during the 1960s, bringing environmental processes, political power, economic interests, and cultural institutions into the field of art, and revealing the mechanisms through which they interact. His work has had a profound influence on subsequent developments in contemporary art.

Spanning more than six decades, the exhibition offers a comprehensive overview of Haacke’s practice, from his early explorations of natural phenomena and living systems to his incisive investigations of political and economic power and art institutions, establishing him as a seminal figure in the development of institutional critique. In an increasingly interconnected and information-driven society, Haacke’s practice has taken on ever greater urgency. Bringing these works together, the exhibition underscores the continuing relevance of Haacke's examination of power, and his use of art to expose and challenge its operations.

Exhibition Overview

Envisioning the world as a network of interconnected systems, Hans Haacke has developed a body of work that critically examines, through art, the institutions and structures surrounding human life. By making processes visible rather than emphasizing finished forms, inviting audience participation, and incorporating living organisms, plants, natural phenomena, and images circulating through society into his work, Haacke expanded the conventional understanding of artistic practice and anticipated many of the experimental approaches that would come to shape contemporary art.

The exhibition opens with photographs taken at documenta 2 (1959), where Haacke, then a student at the State Art Academy in Kassel, worked as an exhibition guard and art handler. Capturing not only the artworks but also visitors, staff members, installation process, and other aspects of the exhibition's operation, these early images already reveal his interest in the social and institutional systems that support and sustain art. From there, the exhibition unfolds in a broadly chronological sequence while highlighting connections among the works. It ranges from early works engaging with physical and natural phenomena to later installations that expose the structures and contradictions of capitalist systems through investigations of real estate, industry and political power.

The exhibition also includes documentation of DER BEVÖLKERUNG, an ongoing participatory artwork for the German Bundestag, as well as archival materials tracing the work’s development. Installed in 2000, this largely untended, free-growing garden is continually transformed as members of parliament contribute soil from their respective constituencies. Also featured is a new Tokyo iteration of Haacke’s Visitors' Poll series, an ongoing body of work that collects responses from museum visitors as a form of social research.

Although Haacke participated in the 1970 Tokyo Biennale, where his work was included in the landmark exhibition Between Man and Matter, his work has been shown in Japan only on a handful of occasions since then. This exhibition offers the first comprehensive presentation in Japan of the breadth and diversity of his practice, bringing together works from across more than six decades.

About Hans Haacke

All images © Hans Haacke / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn. Courtesy the artist and Paula Cooper Gallery, New York.