Othmar Eder

Starting point was the city of Zurich in 2007 and the final destination surprisingly became Eschlikon on the countryside. ‘Bergzeit’ 2007, ‘Durch den Wald’ 2009, ‘An den Fluss’ 2011 and ‘Am Garten vorbei’ 2013 are the previous stations of Eder’s journey into town.

“Some people have a place of longing, a place that promises or fulfills all unfulfilled desires. A city, a village, a region that makes us feel more comfortable then somewhere else – for some reason just because it’s our place. For Othmar Eder the place of longing is Lisbon.”
Markus Landert, Erinnerung an ein aufgetauchtes U-Boot, in: Othmar Eder et al. (Hg.), Fremde Nähe, Stettfurt 2015.

The title of the show ‘In die Stadt’ was born long before the ‘town’, long before Eder knew about his place of longing. When he started planning the show for Zurich in 2010, he realized that he hadn’t found that city yet, thus, he inevitably made stopovers at the river and in the garden. Only when travelling to Lisbon last year he realized where he had arrived. The wiped off colours of the walls and the glaring light over the city seemed so familiar and made Eder recognize himself. And the city itself embraced him just like a long-awaited home-comer.

Legend has it that Lisbon was founded by Ulysses, who passed by while sailing home from Troy to Ithaca. The Latin name ‘Ollissipona’ derives of it. However, Eder’s odyssey did not last ten but only eight years – from the first to the present show. Everyone who knows Eder realizes the importance of the term time. Already in 2011 he tried to catch the passing of time in his work ‘Ohne Titel (Hirte)’ by presenting a diptych of two almost undetectably diverse images, only separated by a split second.

Eder’s works, despite their quietness and containment, are condensed moments in which he compresses life in overlapping images and time layers. His massively overexposed drawings have a soft contrast, which makes them characteristic and recognizable. If colour is needed he applies matt natural pigments (rose, blue, yellow) in innumerable layers. This slowness is the process - is the journey itself.

Othmar Eder lives and works in Stettfurt, CH. He completed his studies at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Vienna, A and has received many prizes and honours ever since, such as the Thurgauer Förderbeitrag in 2014. For his latest show ‘Fremde Nähe – Proximidade Desconhecida’ a catalogue was published which also refers to the current show ‘In die Stadt’. Next shows are at the Kunstraum Engländerbau, Vaduz, FL and Transboavista, Plataforma Revolver, Lissabon, P.