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16/1/2013

Silvia Bachli and Eric Hattan

MK Gallery, Milton Keynes

MK Gallery presents What about Sunday?, the first UK exhibition by Swiss artists Silvia Bächli (b. 1956) and Eric Hattan (b. 1955).

Silvia Bächli works primarily in drawing and painting on paper and includes around 100 works made over the last 25 years, not previously exhibited. Her drawings are both carefully considered and spontaneous, hinting at fleeting moments or movements, often evoking bodies or landscapes, without ever explicitly stating them. They are playful technically, revelling in the unpredictable encounters of brush, watercolour and paper and the variable effects of density, light and shade. Often assembled in clusters or ensembles, displayed on walls and tables as installations of drawings, the cumulative effect is like large and disparate pieces in an incomplete puzzle.

Eric Hattan's videos, installations and performances are similarly responsive to his surroundings, selecting and rearranging everyday items and finding beauty and humour in them. Through gentle manipulation, by displacing, folding or turning things inside out or upside down, Hattan directs our attention to overlooked details, to how things are made and to why they are there. Whether uprooting a lamppost, gluing objects to the ceiling or hanging Swiss bells round the necks of a flock of sheep, Hattan's interruptions and disruptions are the result of a curiosity and a questioning of our environment and conventions.

Featuring both individual and collaborative pieces, the exhibition suggests numerous parallels in Bächli and Hattan's work, despite their contrasting techniques and approaches. The exhibition includes collages made collaboratively over the years from discarded snapshots by Hattan and rejected drawings by Bächli, unlikely pairings and unexpected correspondences humorously brought together like a game of consequences. By bringing these two artists together, the exhibition focuses on their ways of looking, with partial visions, perspectival distortions and, in some cases, optical illusions that continually keep us guessing, reconsidering and simply re-inventing the world around us.

A new permanent public art work by Eric Hattan has been commissioned by MK Gallery with the support of The Parks Trust, Milton Keynes. The work will be located in Campbell Park, a few minutes' walk from MK Gallery in the centre of Milton Keynes.

About the artists
Silvia Bächli was born in 1956 in Baden, Switzerland. Since 1993 she has been Professor at Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste Karlsruhe, Germany. In 2009 she represented Switzerland at the 53rd Biennale di Venezia, Venice. Recent solo exhibitions have been held at Kunstmuseum St. Gallen, St.Gallen, Switzerland (2012); Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris (2007); and Museu Serralves, Porto (2007). Her work features in major collections including The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; and Kunstmuseum Basel. www.silviabaechli.ch

Eric Hattan was born in 1955 in Wettingen, Switzerland. He has exhibited widely, in solo and group shows across Europe and in North and South America. Recent exhibitions include Les Poissons, selon l'arrivage du jour (2011), La BF15 Espace d'art contemporain, Lyon, France; Into the white (2010), MAC/VAL, Musée d'art contempotrain du Val de Marne, Vitry sur Seine/Paris; and All the while (2008), a video installation created for the Féstivale de création contemporain, Le Printemps de Septembre in Toulouse, France. www.hattan.ch

Bächli and Hattan are based in Basel and Paris. Recently they showed together in the exhibition Schnee bis im Mai (Snow until May), Kunsthalle Nürnberg, Germany (2011).

Publication
A publication accompanies the exhibition, featuring short texts by writers selected by the artists in response to a series of photographs taken by Bächli and Hattan during their research visits to Milton Keynes. Includes texts by Samantha Bohatsch, Edwin Burdis, Chris Fite-Wassilik, Bruce Haines, Juli Kreten, Bera Nordal, Andrew Shields, Harriet Zilch, Nina Zimmer, Emil Sennewald, Markus Stegmann, Jürg Halter, Eva Kuhn, Jonas Storsve, Richard Wentworth and Raoul de Keyser. The publication is designed by Astrid Seme and published by Mark Pezinger Verlag.
www.markpezinger.de

For further details and to order please visit www.mkgallery.org/shop.

Symposium
On 13 February 2013 MK Gallery will be hosting a symposium about public art and socially engaged practices, focussing on pan-European collaboration and access to EU funding, in association with independent public art project On the Verge.

Exhibition Supporters
The exhibition is generously supported by Pro Helvetia, the Stanley Thomas Johnson Foundation, Swiss Cultural Fund in Britain and the Embassy of Switzerland, with additional in kind support from Stagsden Christmas Trees.

Press Office
Katharine Sorensen, ksorensen@mkgallery.org / T +44 (0)1908 558318

Preview: 17 January, 6–9pm

MK Gallery
900 Midsummer Boulevard, Milton Keynes
Gallery hours: Tuesday - Friday 12 noon - 8pm
Saturday 11am - 8pm
Sunday 11am - 5pm
Closed Mondays
Free Admission

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