This catalogue was published in conjunction with the exhibition at the Fundacio Antoni Tapies, Barcelona, June 21 – September 3, 1995.

The work of Hans Haacke (Cologne, 1936) borrows forms, words and styles from systems that appear extraneous to the world of art—from physical and environmental to social and political systems—in order to demonstrate their frequent interdependencies and equivalencies. He appropriates their prevailing meanings, selecting and rearranges them, removing them from their original context and placing them in the new context of a museum or gallery.

In the late 1950s Hans Haacke was affiliated with Zero, a Düsseldorf-based group of young artists that was known for its search for new artistic strategies, a number of which he soon discovered for himself. Taking natural elements (ice, earth, water, air) as his point of departure he created complex structures in which time, energy and space took on temporary shapes that were not static exhibition pieces, but what he called real time-systems.