This exhibition borrows its title from the 1984 song Live is Life by Austrian one-hit wonders Opus. The song is notable for the kind of crazed optimism that characterised the era in which it was released. As I listen to the song today, in 2022, in the world that has emerged over the course of those 38 years, it appears nothing short of idiotic.
And yet, it grows on you. After ten listens, I embrace the sentiment, desperately imagining that all is well, that everything will be fine. My wish is that you, the young artists whose development I have had the pleasure of following during your Master’s studies, will affirm Live is Life in your artistic practice, not as an escape but as a necessary strategy.
All together now:
Then it’s life Live is life Live is life Live Live is life, when we all feel the power Live is life, come on stand up and dance Live is life, when the feeling of the people Live is life, is the feeling of the band, yeah
When we all give the power We all give the best Every minute of an hour Don’t think about a rest Then you all get the power You all get the best And everyone gives everything and every song
Everybody sings
Then it’s life Live is life Live Live is life Live Live is life Live Live is life
And you call when it’s over You call it should last Every minute of the future Is a memory of the past ’Cause we all gave the power We all gave the best
