calendario eventi  :: 

X

26/1/2012

Roman Signer / Blick / Daniel Karrer

Aargauer Kunsthaus, Aarau

Roman Signer

Street Views and Super 8 Films

The Aargauer Kunsthaus kicks off the new year with a large one-man exhibition of internationally renowned Swiss artist Roman Signer. The idea for this monographic exhibition at the Aargauer Kunsthaus arose from a desire to introduce a wider public to the artist's photo series "Street Views", which was acquired in 2011. The photographs of this series are juxtaposed with thirty-six projections of super 8 films that Roman Signer made between 1975 and 1989 to document actions, in most cases quite spectacular ones.

The exhibition stands out for the way in which the projections of the thirty-six super 8 films are orchestrated: following traditional ways of mounting pictures in museums, the projected films are shown side by side. In order to allow this expansive mode of presentation, almost all movable exhibition walls on the ground floor of the museum's extension building were removed. The parallel arrangement of the projections in a single large exhibition gallery with over 600 m2 floor space provides visitors with an opportunity for a comprehensive and comparative viewing of Signer's super 8 films.

Roman Signer's actions – the artist himself refers to them as "events" – are ephemeral in nature, virtually demanding to be captured on film. Early on, before the video camera and before digital recording, the artist therefore started using super 8 technology. Among the most important documents that make his performative work accessible, the super 8 films encapsulate Signer's early work. Although short and focused on the main events, the films do not simply cater to viewer's media-conditioned curiosity for the moment of shock or surprise. Rather, the individual shots and subtle stagings emphasize the situational nature of the performative act. If the artist himself appears in a film – as happens quite often - , he is shown not as a protagonist, but as a mere facilitator of the events conceived. Recorded without sound, the films convey only the visual aspect of the events, thus pointing to their potential as ephemeral sculptures. Ever since the 1970s, Signer's artistic oeuvre has been informed by a concept of sculpture as process-like and de-materialized. Close collaboration with Roman Signer has resulted in an impressive array of film projections at the Aargauer Kunsthaus, in which the super 8 films transcend their documentary character, becoming works of art in their own right.

Constituting a counterpoint to the filmic works is the 47-part photo series "Strassenbilder" (Street Views), likewise shown on the ground floor. Being more self-contained, the galleries devoted to the "Strassenbilder" photographs reinforce the sense of compactness that characterises the presentation of the super 8 films. While taking up the scenographical approach of the film projections, the numerous photographs point to yet another aspect of Signer's work: analytical observation and its presentation in a coherent sequence. The work "Strassenbilder" consists of two series of 23 and 24 photographs that each present familiar sights encountered when driving through rural regions of Eastern Europe: makeshift stalls selling fruit and vegetables on the one hand and memorials commemorating road casualties on the other. Signer took these serial images of similar subjects during travels through the Carpathians, the Ukraine and Romania. In both series, the needs of individuals either to market the produce from their own garden or to express the pain suffered through the loss of a loved one take on a physical shape. In spite of their unspectacular look and random nature, Signer's photographs – particularly in their serial form – render these everyday arrangements as installations of high aesthetic quality.

In devoting an exhibition to Roman Signer, the Aargauer Kunsthaus honors a renowned Swiss artist, paying tribute to his work on a national level. The unexpected presentation of Signer's super 8 films allows for a focused look at his performative work. At the same time, as a result of their juxtaposition with the photos series "Strassenbilder", the super 8 films present themselves within the expanded framework of Roman Signer's artistic oeuvre, opening up new levels of meaning and bringing home to the visiting public the status of the films as works of art in their own right, rather than mere documents of actions.

Following an apprenticeship as an architectural draughtsman, Roman Signer (b. in Appenzell in 1938) attended the Schule für Gestaltung (School of Design) in Zurich in 1966 and, from 1969 until 1971, the Schule für Gestaltung in Lucerne (School of Design), topping off his art education with a year abroad in Warsaw, where he attended the Academy of Fine Arts. Since 1971, Roman Signer has been living and working as a freelance artist in St. Gallen. From 1974 until 1995 he taught at the Lucerne School of Design. Starting in 1972, Signer participated in numerous exhibitions at home and abroad. Selected solo exhibitions in recent years: "Roman Signer – Acht Stühle (Ocho sillas)", Sala de Arte Público Siqueiros (SAPS), Mexico City, 2011; "Roman Signer - Four Rooms, One Artist", Swiss Institute, New York, 2010; "Roman Signer. Projections", Helmhaus Zurich, Zurich, 2008; "Roman Signer - Reisefotos", Aargauer Kunsthaus, Aarau, 2006.

Curators of the exhibition:
Madeleine Schuppli, Director, Aargauer Kunsthaus
Thomas Schmutz, Curator/Deputy Director, Aargauer Kunsthaus

In conjunction with the exhibition, a catalogue devoted to the photo series "Strassenbilder" is published. Titled "KARPATEN UKRAINE RUMÄNIEN", it includes reproductions of all 47 photographs, with the objective of emphasising the serial nature of the images and encouraging readers to play with mixing the two groups of subjects, crosses and vegetables. Like the original photographs, the reproductions focus on the issue of the purpose and interpretation of what is seen, as well as the confusion of layers of meaning as a result of the aesthetic affinity that characterises the presentation of the vegetable stalls and the roadside memorials. Essays by Paula van den Bosch, Curator of contemporary art Bonnefantenmuseum Maastricht, and Madeleine Schuppli, Director Aargauer Kunsthaus, establish the discursive framework. Published by Steidl Verlag, Göttingen, 2011.

A limited artist's edition will be published in conjunction with the exhibition.

----

Blick

Curator: Madeleine Schuppli, Director Aargauer Kunsthaus, Aarau

In 2009, the Swiss Media Company Ringier committed its archive of roughly seven million images to the Canton of Aargau. For the exhibition "Blick", the Aargauer Kunsthaus invited artists to sound out the depths of this image reservoir and, each in their own way, use it to develop works.

With the Ringier image archive a huge treasure trove of photographic documents from the 1940s to the early 21st century found its way to Aarau. Roughly seventy eventful years of many-faceted change and upheaval are captured in these photographs. The media images illustrate, in other words, contemporary political, social and cultural history. Some of the images were published in Ringier print media such as Schweizer Woche, Sie+Er, Glückspost, Schweizer Illustrierte, l'Hébdo and Blick.

The bulk of the photographs, however, remained hidden from public view until now. The exhibition "Blick" shows that these images, beyond being valuable documents, also constitute deeply interesting material to work with artistically. For our exhibition we invited artists to sound out the depths of this image reservoir and, each in their own way, use it to develop work. In a stimulating and entertaining presentation, the artists Georg Gatsas, Lutz/Guggisberg, Daniela Keiser and Hans Peter Litscher demonstrate radically different approaches to media imagery.

Georg Gatsas (b. 1978), an artist from eastern Switzerland, created especially for our exhibition an expansive installation that reflects on the boundary between the public and the private realm. It consists of a furnished living space that, in terms of its aesthetics, can be dated to the 1980s. In this space Gatsas presents archival photographs that are likewise from the eighties. Within the domestic interior the professional mass media images mutate into what seem to be personal souvenir and decorative pictures.

The video piece created by the artist duo Lutz & Guggisberg (Andres Lutz, b. 1968 / Anders Guggisberg, b. 1966) takes us along on an expedition into the archive. In their video the two artists explore the spaces of the archive by night – a foray into foreign territory that turns into a truly adventurous journey of self-discovery. Rather than taking images from the archive, they examine it as a specific organism with its own regularities, structures and atmospheric features.

Yet another approach to the Ringier image archive is opened up by Hans Peter Litscher (b. 1955). Taking the photographic documents as his starting point, Litscher creates a narrative that interweaves reality and fiction. Its protagonist is Abraham Guggenheim, who was born in Lengnau and, for years, allegedly smuggled prints out of the archive with the objective of one day establishing an Aargau Guggenheim Museum. With a wealth of fascinating documents Hans Peter Litscher now introduces us to the basic holdings for the planned museum.

Daniela Keiser (b. 1963) is interested in the interplay of image and language, a topic of fundamental importance in particular for print media. In a large-scale wall collage she superimposes current pages from the daily "Blick" with photographs from the Ringier image archive. By breaking up coherence and commingling temporal levels she creates a new nexus of text and image, thus allowing for new readings.

The artists included in "Blick" each found individual ways to access the image archive and use the creative potential it holds for new and surprising works of their own. Their compelling artwork in this exhibition shows what an exciting and valuable resource such a repository of historically relevant images can be for art practitioners.

----

Daniel Karrer

CARAVAN 1/2012: Daniel Karrer - Series of exhibitions of young art

Curator: Madeleine Schuppli, Director, Aargauer Kunsthaus, Aarau

In 2012, the Aargauer Kunsthaus continues its series of exhibitions of young art by presenting the work of Basel-based artist Daniel Karrer (b. 1983). Karrer creates surprising small- and large-scale paintings whose image fragments are culled from the internet and the virtual world of computer games. In a gallery devoted to the permanent display of works from the museum's collection, Karrer contrasts his contemporary collage paintings with 19th century paintings.

Daniel Karrer devotes himself to the classic medium of painting, yet creates paintings that surprise us by their close affinity with the aesthetics of digital imagery. The artist is fascinated with the space and surface structures generated in animated 3D films or computer games by linking realms that are widely different in terms of colour as well as subject. His works are based on the one hand on photographs of his own making and on the other on foraying virtual cyber worlds and searching the internet for image fragments, which the artist then arranges, first on the computer and subsequently on canvas or panel, into spatial constructs that have a distinct surrealist feel. In fantastic and usually deserted settings, landscape meets architecture and natural organic elements coalesce with geometric artificial constructions. Often several picture planes overlap, causing interior and exterior spaces to merge, with what seems to be the greatest of ease, into one. Perspective distortions and contrasted colouring between dull tones and brightly luminous details add to the mysterious and at times uncanny atmosphere of his paintings.

Ultimately, Daniel Karrer's paintings are about painting itself. The subject provides the projection surface and serves to trigger his art, with the particular manner of painting depending on the subject. Just as the melody and the lyrics complement each other in a piece of music, the subject of the painting and the manner of painting both add to the expanded meaning of Daniel Karrer's works.

At the Aargauer Kunsthaus Daniel Karrer shows a selection of his landscape and portrait paintings from the past three years. Their juxtaposition with 19th century paintings from the museum's collection is bound to result in a fascinating dialogue between Karrer's contemporary collage paintings and the idealism- or realism-based works of, say, Arnold Böcklin and Robert Zünd.

Born in Binningen, Basel, in 1983, Daniel Karrer lives and works in Basel. After receiving his BFA from the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland FHNW Teaching in Art and Education at HGK Basel and following exchange studies in painting at the Academy of Visual Arts in Leipzig, Germany, he did his MFA at the Basel Hochschule für Gestaltung und Kunst (Academy of Art and Design). Selected exhibitions to date: "Durch die Hecke", Herrmann Germann Contemporary, Zurich (2011); "Ausstellung des Kunstkredits Basel–Stadt", Ausstellungshalle Oslo 12, Basel (2011); "Weihnachtsausstellung der Kunstgesellschaft Interlaken", Kunsthaus Interlaken (2010); "TRABANT #21", Ausstellungsraum Klingental, Basel (2010); "LICHTFELD 10", Dreispitz, Basel/Münchenstein (2010); "ERNTE'10, Kunstankäufe des Kantons Basel-Landschaft", Kunsthaus Baselland (2010); "Nordstern stellt aus", Unterwerk, Basel (2009); "WEARTPOT", FabrikCulture, Hegenheim (2009); "Regionale10", Kunsthaus Baselland (2009); "B4REAL", Ausstellungsraum Alte Post, Riehen (2008); "Jungkunst 08", Winterthur (2008).

CARAVAN – Launched in 2008, this series of exhibitions of young art offers visitors to the Aargauer Kunsthaus a chance to encounter young Swiss artists and to discover novel and as yet unestablished artistic practices. Its name, CARAVAN, is programmatic; several times a year, artists are given different galleries of the Aargauer Kunsthaus to work with. These "mobile interventions" engage in a discourse with the building, the collection and the programme of the Kunsthaus, opening up new ways of seeing for the visiting public. In this way, rather than creating a self-contained project space for recent art, the exhibition series promotes a link-up of recent artistic practices with everything else the Kunsthaus has to offer. Each time, CARAVAN will thus stop at varying and, perhaps, surprising locations in the Aargauer Kunsthaus.

Image: Roman Signer: Rauchkreuz, 1975. Super-8-Filmstill © Roman Signer

Media/Communications, Aargauer Kunsthaus:
Filomena Colecchia Tel. +41 (0)62 835 23 34, e-mail filomena.colecchia@ag.ch

Opening: 27 January 2012 - 18:00

Aargauer Kunsthaus
Aargauerplatz 5001 Aarau
Opening Hours: Tues-Sun 10 am - 5 pm, Thur 10 am - 8 pm, closed on Mondays

stampa

permanent link