Susanne Hofer
dal 17/11/2011 al 22/12/2011
Segnalato da
17/11/2011
Susanne Hofer
Christinger De Mayo, Zurich
Komm! Ins Offene, Freund! In her first solo show at Christinger De Mayo, the artist refers to the great tradition of the Theater of the Absurd and therewith to Samuel Beckett and Eugene Ionesco.
"Komm! Ins Offene, Freund! Zwar glänzt ein Weniges heute
nur herunter und eng schliesset der Himmel uns ein."
Friedrich Hölderlin
Where once the door to the balcony and a window could be found, now a hole draws our glance to the shimmering green, and one might ask if nature has already started its reconquest. The picture is a billboard and projection screen at the same time, stage and scenery.
In her first solo show at Christinger De Mayo, Susanne Hofer (*1970) refers to the great tradition of the Theater of the Absurd and therewith to Samuel Beckett and Eugène Ionesco. A theater spotlight strays over the wall showing nothing more than apparent and real cracks in the white cube's wall. At night a snowstorm arises - that ultimately turns out to be swirling dust in front of the projector's lens. Hölderlin moves to East Berlin and lures us outside, while on small monitors strange things happen.
Wolfgang Bauer's (1962/63) "Mikrodramen", a form of flash drama, justifiably are regarded as being impossible to perform on stage. On roughly three pages of script the Austrian dramatist makes more than a thousand Apaches gallop across the stage, or he repeats all of Richard Wagner's plays chronologically. In her "Mikrodramen", Susanne Hofer combines the intentions of Bauer and his predecessors, Becket and Ionesco, and broadens them with the means of video art. There's not much going on, on the small monitors; doors bang, a shadow moves along a street and a cloud floats out of a window. Small incidents, caught on camera like afterthoughts; a poetic absurdity that the beholder grasps not till a few seconds later.
Yet, the real "Mikrodramen" take place in the viewer's mind; the small sequences have an echo, a sort of interference, transforming pictures into thoughts and back into pictures. They become subjective micro universes - and the show turns into a stage for the non-compulsory possible.
Susanne Hofer:
Born in 1970 in Lucerne. 1995 Master at Hochschule für Gestaltung und Kunst, Lucerne. Various solo and group exhibitions in numerous museums and art spaces, a.o. Kunstmuseum Lucerne, Substitut Berlin, Kunstmuseum Langenthal, Helmhaus Zurich, Café Gallery, London, ZKM, Karlsruhe. Susanne Hofer lives and works in Zurich.
Image: Susanne Hofer: Mikrodramen - Die grüne Tür, 2011
Videostill
Opening: 18 November 2011 - 18:00
Christinger De Mayo
Ankerstrasse 24 - Zurich
Wed-Fri 12 - 6 pm, Sat 11 am - 5 pm