Restless Empathy

Restless Empathy examines the complex process of projecting into the interior world of another–whether artist, viewer or object–and seeking to make a connection. For the exhibition, the Aspen Art Museum has invited eight artists–Allora & Calzadilla, Pawel Althamer, Marc Bijl, Lara Favaretto, Geof Oppenheimer, Lars Ramberg, Frances Stark and Mark Wallinger–to propose projects sited throughout the museum and town of Aspen. While diverse in practice, these artists create and explore empathy in unexpected ways. With recent works grouped under Relational Aesthetics, the viewer becomes instrumentalized within the work itself. Rather than use people as a medium, however, the artists in Restless Empathy make generous gestures toward the public, marked by a deep sincerity and moments of intimate surprise. Subverting expectations of permanence and monumentality in art that addresses the public, Restless Empathy broadly explores relationships between aesthetics, space, locality and modes of address.