The group exhibition Why here is always somewhere else is dedicated to the conceptual and performative art of Central, East and Southeastern Europe. The exhibition focusses on a selection of works from Kontakt, the art collection of the Erste Bank Group in Vienna. For this first-time presentation of the
collection in Germany the curators Alenka Gregoric from Ljubljana, Antonia Majaca from Zagreb, Vit Havranek from Prague and the Prelom Kolektiv from Belgrade have been asked to integrate supplementary contributions of their current work in the exhibition.

Based on central works of the 1960s and 1970s Kontakt follows the development of conceptual strategies leading to art of the present day. A major emphasis of the collection consists of works from the former socialist states, which have long been neglected by the art world and partly even to this day are missing from an official art historiography. The assembly of these works in Why here is always somewhere else makes clear that the radical upheavals and changes in the art of the 1960s and 1970s took place in many places at once, building up relationships to one another, but also marking out concrete differences.

Today's art is unthinkable without the progressive approaches of the 1960s and 1970s and the contemporary positions in the exhibition *Why here is always somewhere else* make clear that many of the processes initiated at that time persist to this day. This investigation of conceptual strategies and their institutional contexts cutting across time and space is also represented by the contributions of the invited curators. Antonia Majaca presents a contemporary interpretation of conceptual forms by the Croatian artist Igor Grubic, the Prelom Kolektiv shows its current project on the Students' Cultural Center in Belgrade as a location for political art of the 1970s to the present day,  and *Alenka Gregoric* hands in a reader on the role of collections in the production and presentation of contemporary art. Vit Havranek's slide and sound installation donates the title to the entire project. "Why here is always somewhere else" is made clear by his assembly of conceptual art works in relation to everyday impressions of (post-)socialist culture.

www.badischer-kunstverein.de

Pawel Althamer, Cezary Bodzianowski, Carola Dertnig, VALIE EXPORT, Heinz Gappmayr, Gorgona, Tomislav Gotovac, Marina Grzinic / Aina Smid, Tibor Hajas, IRWIN, Sanja Ivekovic, Sejla Kameric, Julije Knifer, Milan Knizak, Julius Koller, Jiri Kovanda, Edward Krasinski, Katalin Ladik, Vlado Martek, Natalia LL , OHO, Roman Ondak, Nesa Paripovic, Mladen Stilinovic, Rasa Todosijevic, Milica Tomic, Peter Weibel

With works from Kontakt. The Art Collection of Erste Bank Group

Curatorial inserts by Alenka Gregoric, Vit Havranek, Antonia Majaca and Prelom Kolektiv