The exhibition and publication "The Physiognomy of Power" consider the oeuvres of the German filmmaker Harun Farocki and the Austrian graphic artist and painter Florentina Pakosta from a common perspective. Whereas Farocki has been one of the most important documentary filmmakers and media artists of Germany since the 1970s, Pakosta is one of the central figures in the feminist avant-garde of Austria and a notable representative of politically critical drawing, graphic art and painting. The critical thought of the two artists is rooted in the German and Austrian postwar eras. It directs an analytical, documentary, satirical and narrational, but in any case oppositional focus towards the structures for imposing domination and the mechanisms for preserving power in politics, economics, culture, and society. There are two aspects which, in spite of all diversity, unite the oeuvres of Farocki and Pakosta: on the one hand, their relentless critique of power; and on the other hand, the language that they chose for this purpose in their respective media-the language of a critical realism.
