Seevorstadt 71
2502 Biel/Bienne
Switzerland
Hours: Wednesday–Friday 12am–6pm,
Thursday 12am–8pm,
Saturday–Sunday 11am–6pm
T +41 32 322 55 86
info@kbcb.ch
The Kunsthaus Centre d’art Pasquart is changing its name to KBCB, Kunsthaus Biel Centre d’art Bienne! The new identity is accompanied by a logo that emphasises the city’s bilingualism and its unique position as an interface between French- and German-speaking Switzerland.
Exhibition programme 2024
March 1–May 19, 2024
PRICE, L’Air du Temps (Air Conditions), Manor Art Award Canton Berne
PRICE (b. 1986) works in the field of performance as well as visual art and superimposes different spaces in his work: theatre stage, club, catwalk or exhibition space. For the Kunsthaus, PRICE has created an olfactory installation in the large Salle Poma. The white cube, whose sterile minimalism is typical of standardised spaces (such as offices or airports), is transformed here—confronted with domestic kitsch—into an ambiguous place. This visual permeability between the public and private spheres is reinforced by the olfactory dimension: while an industrial fan continuously emits the characteristic odour of cleaning agents and room fresheners, delicate perfumes with erotic connotations emanate from flacons, alluding to the feelings of the visitors.
Stephen Felton, Bugaboo Voodoo
The paintings of Stephen Felton (b. 1975) are initially astonishing in their simplicity. The individual freehand drawings on large-format canvas display a reduced colour palette and testify to an obvious speed of execution. This simultaneously gestural and fragmentary work is reminiscent of children’s drawings and cave paintings as well as a kind of softly drawn pictogram, somewhere between symbol and icon, figuration and abstraction. Stephen Felton’s series are usually inspired by a theme or a book, the grandiloquence of which contrasts with the means the artist uses for his painting. The exhibition at the Kunsthaus thus derives its iconography from treatises on various approaches to black magic that the artist has collected over several years.
Sveta Mordovskaya, Costume
Curator: Paolo Baggi
The works of Sveta Mordovskaya (b. 1989) are mostly compositions made of simple materials that simultaneously testify to a process of dissection and fusion. They include various objects found on the street, as well as mirrors, dolls and even straw. The roughness of these assemblages evokes associations that are either affective in nature or relate to a socio-political context. The trained photographer also integrates images from her personal archive into the exhibition, which continue the problems of her sculpture in a critical and humorous way.
Debbie Alagen, Complex PRIX NEW HEADS
Curator: Paolo Baggi
Debbie Alagen (b. 1997) develops his artistic practice around symbols located at the interface between private and public, between mental space and the outside world. His works utilise various strategies to penetrate the unconscious gears of our mental worlds: Shifts in perception, recourse to the haptic qualities of certain materials or even the careful arrangement of a symbolism of intimacy, control or transition. In the Kunsthaus, the artist is carrying out a kind of introspection with a new installation that challenges visitors’ curiosity.
Lumpenstation
Throughout 2024, the web radio Lumpen Station will take possession of the Studiolo. By inviting sound artists from various art scenes (local, national and international), the Lumpen Station team will be able to produce public radio programmes: Interviews, performances, concerts… The programmes are then edited, archived and broadcast continuously on lumpenstation.art.
Save the dates
June 9–August 25, 2024
Jim Shaw (curator: Anne-Claire Schmitz, MuKHA, Anvers)
Loretta Fahrenholz (curator: Selma Meuli)
September 15–November 24, 2024
Jos de Gruyter & Harald Thys
Nathalie du Pasquier & Olivier Mosset
December 8, 2024–January 26, 2025
Cantonale Berne Jura 2024
