Peter Schneebeli
FILIALE 1
August 29, 2009 – October 17, 2009
The photography at the entrance of the 'Ehegraben' works like a periscope and allows glancing from afar into the wide. Just alike Schneebeli has created a narrow catwalk and focuses the looks and the moves of the spectators. Blue light creates a magic atmosphere: to see, to perceive and to observe, a challenging program. Frameless spectacles are scattered around - what for? The senses are being captivated.
The video loop 'Weisses Rauschen' (white rush) exposes a common ritual between people in public spaces. Pictures are being taken in front of the same background: 'I'm standing where you were before, you stand where I stood before'. On the coarse grain film the sequence almost fades into fuzziness in spite of the overwhelming location. And yet people are taking pictures of one another, freezing the moment while surrounded by the abyss.
At the end of the passage one faces not the abyss but still has to leave the safe catwalk in order to step into the courtyard. On the left is an ensemble called 'Familienausflug' (family tour): an oriental rug, a blue shopping trolley with what seems like raw pieces of meat presented on green glass racks. Unambiguousness is being transformed into ambiguousness: food for thought - just by its sheer iconity.
On the other side of the courtyard Schneebeli combines two series that he recorded in 2002 on the occasion of the Dokumenta XI in Kassel and on the Bahnhofstrasse in Zurich. The narrative slight-show 'InStrömen' (pouring down) draws a fiction on pubertal tramps. The shots taken in Kassel show a rainy park where the installation of the artist Dominique Gonzalez-Förster was placed while the Zurich pictures show shopping window reflections off Paradeplatz. Combination and assembly, chance and choice were the means used in this work.
A little carriage with a red ribbon is placed at t the end of the walk. The name 'Ariadne' implies an exit from the labyrinth of various perceptions, references and encounters. The look-up to the sky rounds up the chain of thoughts and leads like a thread to the starting image of the installation.
Peter Schneebeli lives and works in Zurich and teaches at the Zurich University of the Arts. His work has been presented in various Swiss exhibitions.
The video loop 'Weisses Rauschen' (white rush) exposes a common ritual between people in public spaces. Pictures are being taken in front of the same background: 'I'm standing where you were before, you stand where I stood before'. On the coarse grain film the sequence almost fades into fuzziness in spite of the overwhelming location. And yet people are taking pictures of one another, freezing the moment while surrounded by the abyss.
At the end of the passage one faces not the abyss but still has to leave the safe catwalk in order to step into the courtyard. On the left is an ensemble called 'Familienausflug' (family tour): an oriental rug, a blue shopping trolley with what seems like raw pieces of meat presented on green glass racks. Unambiguousness is being transformed into ambiguousness: food for thought - just by its sheer iconity.
On the other side of the courtyard Schneebeli combines two series that he recorded in 2002 on the occasion of the Dokumenta XI in Kassel and on the Bahnhofstrasse in Zurich. The narrative slight-show 'InStrömen' (pouring down) draws a fiction on pubertal tramps. The shots taken in Kassel show a rainy park where the installation of the artist Dominique Gonzalez-Förster was placed while the Zurich pictures show shopping window reflections off Paradeplatz. Combination and assembly, chance and choice were the means used in this work.
A little carriage with a red ribbon is placed at t the end of the walk. The name 'Ariadne' implies an exit from the labyrinth of various perceptions, references and encounters. The look-up to the sky rounds up the chain of thoughts and leads like a thread to the starting image of the installation.
Peter Schneebeli lives and works in Zurich and teaches at the Zurich University of the Arts. His work has been presented in various Swiss exhibitions.
