In 1965, Barbara Steveni together with artist John Latham developed the Artist Placement Group (APG): a model that placed and embedded artists within companies, industries, government departments, giving them an open brief to engage with their respective environments. The aim was not necessarily to produce an object or exhibition, but to allow the artist to enter a particular context and, in doing so, potentially affect the way the organisation understood itself. The APG's guiding proposition, "Context is half the work," shifted attention away from the artwork as an isolated object and towards the relationships, structures, and situations, in which artistic practice takes place. It is in this spirit that, as part of Yana Foqué's tenure, the institution is initiating an annual artist placement.
At Graz Kunsterein, each year one artist will be invited to become part of the institution for an extended period, entering into its existing structures, rhythms, conversations, and working processes. Frank Wasser will participate in the inaugural edition from 1st September - 31st October 2026. The placement is conceived as a framework for moving artists from the margins of institutional structures towards their centre: beyond the short, intensive exhibition cycle through which artists are temporarily brought in, generate value, and leave again, while the conditions of unstable income, limited social security, and a lack of long-term support remain largely unchanged.
