Annual program 2017

In 2017, the Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst presents solo exhibitions by Liz Magor, Maja Bajevic, and Jimmie Durham, as well as the group show Extra Bodies – The Use of the “Other Body” in Contemporary Art. The exhibition format Collection on Display presents selected works from the collection of the Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst—this year as a threepart themed series with the title Communities, Rules and Rituals.

Liz Magor: you you you
February 18–May 7, 2017
Opening: Friday, February 17

Not only is artist Liz Magor (b. 1948 in Winnipeg, Manitoba) an influential contemporary sculptor in her native country Canada, but her works, which she has developed since the 1970s, are also referred to by a whole generation of younger artists today. The culture of production and value, and the associated ambivalent relationship between people and consumer goods, are central to her work. This retrospective exhibition focuses on sculptures and installations that the artist has produced in the last three decades in her Vancouver studio. The allegorical imagery of found everyday objects questions the modern cultural society’s idealised notions of nature, and probes the interior worlds of desire and addiction. From the perspective of art history, Magor’s position is highly unconventional, due to her decades of engagement with the material world of things and its resonance in substance. In their materiality, her painstakingly made sculptures, devoid of bases, possess an emotional force. In light of the “material turn” that has gripped recent art production, as well as the humanities and cultural studies over the past years, Magor’s work now seems more current than ever. The Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst presents the first comprehensive exhibition of Liz Magor’s oeuvre to be held in Switzerland.

The exhibition at the Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst was conceived in close cooperation with Kunstverein in Hamburg and realised in partnership with Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, as well as with Nigel Prince (Vancouver Contemporary Art Gallery).

Liz Magor lives and works in Vancouver. Her works have been shown in various solo exhibitions around the world, e.g. at Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal (2016), Centre d’art contemporain d’Ivry (le Crédac) in Paris (2016), the Art Gallery of Ontario (2015), Peep-Hole in Milan (2015), Presentation House Gallery in Vancouver (2014), the Henry Art Gallery in Seattle (2008) and The Power Plant in Toronto (2003). Liz Magor represented Canada at the Venice Biennale (1984), took part in Documenta 8 in Kassel (1987) and participated in the Biennale of Sydney (1982).

This exhibition is curated by Heike Munder (director, Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst). In cooperation with Musée d’art de Montréal and Kunstverein in Hamburg, a monographic JRP|Ringier publication is being released to accompany the exhibition, with articles by Dan Adler, Lesley Johnstone, Liz Magor, Heike Munder, Bettina Steinbrügge, Ian Carr-Harris, Géraldine Gourbe, Trevor Mahovsky, Isabelle Pauwels, Chris Sharp and Corin Sworn.

Maja Bajevic
May 20–August 13, 2017
Opening: Friday, May 19

In a large overview exhibition, the Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst presents the oeuvre of French-Bosnian artist Maja Bajevic (b. 1967 in Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina). This exhibition concentrates on works from the last ten years, supplemented by newly produced pieces. Since the mid-1990s, Bajevic has worked on a very wide range of different issues, encompassing globalisation, inclusion/exclusion, exploitation, neo-liberalism and their reciprocal effects. At the same time, Bajevic also repeatedly raises the issue of personal identity and homeland, and how these are constituted or “made impossible.” The presentation at the Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst demonstrates Bajevic’s ongoing work on themes like the abuse of power and religion, migration and marginalisation of the foreign, and the tension between local and global, while also positioning her oeuvre within the tradition of art that performs a social, informative function and focuses on changing prevalent convictions.

Maja Bajevic (b. 1967 in Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina) lives and works in Paris and Sarajevo. In recent years, her work has been shown in a number of solo exhibitions at European institutions, e.g. at Daad Galerie in Berlin (2012), Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid (2011), Kunsthaus Glarus (2009) and the National Gallery of Bosnia & Herzegovina in Sarajevo (2006). In parallel to this, Bajevic has also been represented in group exhibitions, e.g. at the 56th Venice Biennale All the World’s Futures (2015), the 4th International Canakkale Biennial in Turkey (2014), the National Museum of Art in Oslo (2014), the 4th Thessaloniki Biennale in Greece (2013), Art Beijing in China (2012), the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art in Toronto (2011), the Royal Academy of Arts in London (2010) and Zacheta National Gallery of Art in Warsaw (2010).

This exhibition is curated by Raphael Gygax (curator, Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst). The exhibition is accompanied by a comprehensive JRP|Ringier publication with articles by Barbara Biedermann, Manuel Borja-Villel, Boris Buden and Roger M. Buergel, as well as by Raphael Gygax.

Jimmie Durham
August 26–November 5, 2017
Opening: Friday, August 25

In the work of Jimmie Durham (b. 1940 in Washington, Arkansas), the examination of societal and political topics, but also the issue of the representation of civilising values, historicity and societal identity, are of central importance. His installations and sculptures reflect on the status of the object between civilizing fetish and artwork, and are metaphors for the sometimes complex and problematic encounters between the human being, technology and nature, from different cultural perspectives. Durham became internationally famous in the 1980s for his sculptures made from materials like wood, stone, and the bones and skulls of animals, with which he frequently thematised the incorporation of Native American elements into contemporary art, thus breaking down standardised visual languages and discourses. For the exhibition at the Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst, in reference to these earlier works, Durham will realise a room-filling installation with a materiality that also addresses Durham’s adopted home, Europe. Based on the skulls of the largest European animal breeds, the abstract life-size sculptures will challenge the binary rhetoric of artificial/natural, past/present and, not least, the Eurocentric norm of differentiation between art and craft. Durham is seen as one of the most important “artist’s artists”: he has had a considerable influence on a generation of younger artists.

Jimmie Durham (b. 1940 in Washington, Arkansas) lives and works in Berlin and Naples. He is an artist, poet, essayist and political activist. His works have been presented in numerous exhibitions around the world, most recently, for instance, at the Armand Hammer Museum of Art in Los Angeles (2017), the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York (2014, 2003, 1993), the Venice Biennale (2015, 2005, 2003, 2001, 1999), Museo Madre, Naples (2013, 2008), M HKA – Museum of Contemporary Art in Antwerp (2012), Swiss Institute in New York (2012), Documenta in Kassel (2012, 1992), the 29th São Paulo Biennial (2010), Centre Pompidou in Paris (2010), Kunsthalle Bern (2010), Musée d’Art moderne de la Ville de Paris (2009) and Museum Ludwig in Cologne (2006).

This exhibition is curated by Heike Munder (director, Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst). In cooperation with the artist, a monographic JRP|Ringier publication shall be released to accompany the exhibition.

Extra Bodies—The Use of the “Other Body” in Contemporary Art
November 18, 2017–February 4, 2018
Opening: Friday, November 17

This exhibition investigates an artistic phenomenon that appeared often in the 1990s, characterised by artists using “other bodies” for their works and making their “vitality” central. These works are all performance-based. The exhibition focuses on works in which the exhibited artists make use of the “other bodies” on the basis of their respective specific social roles, thus making the societal dimension a constituent element of the work—these “other bodies” can also be described as “extras”. In multiple exhibition sections, which span both floors of the museum and incorporate many works from the museum’s collection, light is shed on this phenomenon, and artworks from the 1960s to the present day are brought together by way of example. Most of all, the transition from the use of a “bio-political” body to a “psycho-political” body, as seen over the last 30 years, is in the foreground.

With Oscar Bony, Clegg & Guttmann, Maria Eichhorn, Jens Haaning, Teresa Margolles, Christoph Schlingensief, Stephen Willats, Artur Żmijewski and others.

This exhibition is curated by Raphael Gygax. In connection with the exhibition, the JRP/Ringier publication Extra Bodies—Über den Einsatz des “anderen Körpers” in der zeitgenössischen Kunst is to be released in German.

Collection on Display: Communities, Rules and Rituals

Communities
February 18–May 7, 2017
Opening: Friday, February 17

Rules
May 20–August 13, 2017
Opening: Friday, May 19 

Rituals
August 26–November 5, 2017
Opening: Friday, August 25, 2017

The exhibition format Collection on Display presents selected works from the collection of the Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst—this year as a three-part themed series with the title Communities, Rules and Rituals.

The first exhibition in the Communities, Rules and Rituals cycle revolves around artists who examine communities: social groups that are not just purpose-oriented, but define themselves via shared views, values and an inner bond. As different as these groups may be, their lowest common denominator is the clear dividing line that they draw between themselves and the others. The two subsequent exhibitions concentrate on works that address rules or rituals: two factors that are fundamental to the functioning and preservation of communities. Rules (the term “social norms” could also be used) predetermine the behaviour of the individual within a social group and make it possible to live together with other people. They limit the possible distinct modes of behaviour, but also reduce the complexity of social coexistence, which in turn provides «security» and orientation. Likewise, rituals have a stabilising effect on social systems. They symbolically deal with the basic issues of human existence, create meaning and order, and promote the “sense of unity” that is so central to the community.

The exhibition series Communities, Rules and Rituals combines works from the collection that are already well known with pieces that have seldom been exhibited before, as well as new additions that are shown here for the first time.

Collection on Display is curated by Nadia Schneider Willen (collection curator, Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst).

Director of the museum: Heike Munder