OTHMAR EDER

‘Othmar Eder makes (up) pictures. He seeks, gathers, draws, photographs, and films them. They emerge from the past; they lie by the side of the road; they peel off facades; they slumber in archival boxes, in memory, at the flea markets, in newspapers, in the most remote shelf of the studio, and in yellowing books… Othmar Eder finds them and they, in turn, take hold of him; he rearranges them, copies and transforms them, places them in new relationships, constructs new contexts; he leaves them to sit for some years before he brings them back from oblivion. Othmar Eder takes an alert and discerning view of what appear to be side stages; nonetheless, the pictures ultimately remain blurred and indistinct. Scratchings, voids, and opaque veils, superimpositions and overpainting – the works evade a concrete focus and persist in the form of mysterious hint. How do you approach an artist who resists categorization, whose works comprise a date range of more than 20 years; whose work has been so abundant and who calls himself a passionate swimmer against the tide? A strict chronology or comprehensive overview of his works is not possible within the scope of this publication. It offers instead a method that takes up Eder’s way of working: an extensive observation, a cautious approach, a grasping of individual finds, and a subjective selection.’ Katja Baumhoff (from Finding Images)

In ‘Nothing is Real!’ Othmar Eder creates in oversized drawings oversized realities – emotional truths. Pessoa could possibly not draw it more appropriate: ‘For I am a man for whom the external world is equal to the internal reality. I don’t perceive it in a metaphysical way, but with those senses that we normally use to take in reality.’

At the opening Othmar Eder will present his current monograph ‘Finding Images’, published by Scheidegger & Spiess. Cornelia Mechler, who managed this project, will speak of and about the cooperation with Othmar Eder. Subsequently, personal copies may be signed.

Othmar Eder lives and works in Stettfurt, Switzerland. He completed his studies at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Vienna and has received many prizes and honours ever since, such as the Summer Studio Shed Frauenfeld and the Thurgauer Förderbeitrag. For his latest show ‘Fremde Nähe – Proximidade Desconhecida’ a catalogue was published which also referred to the gallery show ‘In die Stadt’. His works are regularly presented in various institutions, such as Lokal14, Zurich; Haus zur Glocke, Steckborn; Geiler Block, Trogen; Werkschau 16 Thurgau; Museum Rosenegg, Kreuzlingen; balzerprojects, Basel; Kunstraum Engländerbau, Vaduz; RLB Kunstbrücke, Innsbruck and Plataforma Revólver, Transboavista, Lisbon.

Open-Air Cinema:
Saturday, September 15, 2018, 9 pm