Serge Spitzer
Round the Corner
Opening: 21 March, 2006
18.30 21.00 hrs
Wednesday-Sunday 10 17 hrs
Tuesday 10 21 hrs
Kunstmuseum Bern
Hodlerstrasse 8-12
CH-3000 Bern 7
Ph: 41 31 328 09 44
info@kunstmuseumbern.ch
www.kunstmuseumbern.ch
Round the Corner
22 March 21 May 2006
Delicate paper markings using titanium and nanotechnology (Law Blanks,1992) together with very large wall drawings (Firewall, 2005-2006), a robotic platform with a soccer ball (Global Culture, 2004-2005) and suspended pneumatic tubes together with Kunstmuseum Berns drawings (Übergang, 1982) from its collection are part of this new exhibition of early and recent works by Serge Spitzer.
What combines these (and from their description) apparently heteroclite manifestations is less the medium or the materials than the preoccupation with the line itself: the line on and about a sheet of paper; or on the wall as an object; the unpredictable virtual line traced by the rolling soccer ball; or one that leads the mind and ends in apparent confusion, releasing itself from the sign while creating links to the real.
As the title of the exhibition Round the Corner indicates, the sudden deviation of the line leading to the many possibilities of everyday, can be found just round the corner. Spitzer describes his works as reality models. He combines art conventions and contexts with technological, biological, social and other systems and attempts to question processes of communication, perception and the awakening of consciousness.
Serge Spitzer is considered one of the pro-eminent artists of his generation. He was born in Bucharest, Romania, in 1951 and since the early eighties lives and works in New York. His work has been shown in many museums and art institutions, among them: Folkwang Museum Essen 1979, Museum of Modern Art New York 1983, Kunstmuseum Bern 1984, Magasin Grenoble 1987, Gemeentemuseum The Hague 1992, Kunsthalle and Kunstverein Düsseldorf 1993, IVAM Centro Julio Gonzales and Centro del Carme Valencia 1994, Henri Moore Institute Leeds 1994, Westfälischer Kunstverein Münster 1995, Kunsthalle Bern 2002. He participated in many international art exhibitions and biennials, such as: Documenta 8 Kassel 1987, Istanbul Biennial 1994, Biennale de Lyon 1997, Kwangju Biennial 1997, Venice Biennale 1999, and contributed works to many group and thematic exhibitions. His work is represented in many public and private collections, among them: Brooklyn Museum New York, Fogg Art Museum Cambridge MA, Museum Folkwang Essen, Haags Gemeentemuseum The Hague, Kunstmuseum Bern, IVAM Instituto Valenciano dArte Moderno Valencia, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago IL, Musée dArt Contemporain Lyon, Nationalgalerie Berlin, Staatliche Museen Neue Galerie Kassel, Staatens Museum for Kunst Kopenhagen, The Museum of Modern Art New York, The Menil Collection Houston, Yale University Art Gallery New Heaven CT.
Re/Search (Alchemy and/or Question Marks with Swiss Air), 1996-2002
22 March 2006 end of 2007
This installation is being redesigned and adapted by Serge Spitzer to a new space at Kunstmuseum Bern. The original concept was first shown at the Biennale in Lyon as Re/Search (Bread and Butter with the ever present question of What is the Difference between a Croissant and a Baguette), 1996-1997, and under the current title in the Pavilion of the Swiss National Bank conceived by Harald Szeemann at the Expo.02 in Biel, Switzerland (2002). The installation Re/Search (Alchemy and/or Question Marks with Swiss Air) will now be on view till at least the end of 2007 in a room on the ground floor in the old wing (opened in 1879) of the museum. The transparent labyrinth of synthetic tubing sprawls throughout the room, creating an impassable tangle through which pneumatic tube systems transport air capsules by chance, in the hope of never colliding.
Curator: Bernhard Fibicher, bernhard.fibicher@kunstmuseumbern.ch, Phone 41 31 328 09 42
