Hannes Egger, Thomas Sterna

Win-Win Lottery

Participation and Chance as Curatorial Principle


The artist Hannes Egger’s (b. 1981; lives and works in Merano, Italy) practice is informed by a conceptual and participatory approach in which the attendees’ active engagement often become a work of art in its own right. Thomas Sterna (b. 1958; lives in Merano and Frankfurt/Main) grapples with the conditions of autonomous artistic production and interrogates its social and political premises.

In their joint project Win-Win Lottery, the two used the drawing of lots—a technique of democratic selection that has been employed successfully since antiquity—as a curatorial principle. They rented a project space at KulturBahnhof Kassel for the duration of documenta fifteen. Instead of a jury, they had chance decide: artists, curators, and exhibition organizers were invited to buy lottery tickets, and thirteen winners were selected in four drawings who were then free to do with the room as they pleased. The resulting exhibitions were surprisingly diverse and often defied conventional ideas about art and standards of its quality.

With writings by Hans Dieter Huber and Larissa Kikol, an interview with the two artists by Katinka Fischer, and a conversation between Hannes Egger, Dan Perjovschi, Farid Rakun (ruangrupa), Thomas Sterna, and Judith Waldmann.

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