It is surely a unique feature of our aimless age that we fully accept the utility of asking questions without any hope of receiving a reply. … Gerz invites the participants into a space of questioning and simply leaves them there.

Lawrence Rinder 1999

Gerz is not only concerned with memory as a form of cultural knowledge. For him, memory is rather the mainspring of human uncertainty and self-questioning. And it is only in this continual and self-induced uncertainty that there is, paradoxically enough, a chance of developing a self-awareness that is not in permanent danger of degenering into self-deception, whether in the form of a superiority complex or an inferiority complex. Historically, self-deception has always had catastrophic social consequences, and so, according to Gerz, it is not just a matter of remembering, but above all one of making memory relevant to the present situation and of gaining insight into its fundamental importance of an ethics for the future is to be developed.

Friedemann Malsch 2002

This artist has long been committed to destabilising and shattering the sense of contemporary art, asking questions without any intention of providing answers, yet finding a possible way forward in doing and acting. A route plotted by Dada, which perhaps still influences contemporary art's various attempts at sense or nonsense.

Roberta Valtorta 2008

Gerz développe une œuvre paradoxale sur le terrain de l’histoire de l’Europe et de la politique européenne. En apparence, il prend en charge les victimes de notre histoire contemporaine. En fait, il va au cœur de la question de la commande publique. On pourrait ainsi penser qu’il participe à l’actuel courant de victimisation, mais son geste est tout autre ; il dit, à propos des victimes, des disparus : « Ne nous occupons pas d’elles, il est trop tard pour elles. Occupons-nous de nous. »

Jean-Louis Déotte 2018

Therefore, Warum does not have the status of a question but instead introduces the question of questioning everything – a permanent, eternal question –

Mark Callaghan 2020