November 21, 2015–February 07, 2016
Kunsthalle Zürich
Limmatstrasse 270
CH-8005 Zurich
T +41 44 272 15 15
This winter season, Kunsthalle Zürich presents three distinct exhibitions and programs. They Printed It! is devoted to printed forms of artistic self-marketing, while art historian Jörg Scheller curates the thematic exhibition Building Modern Bodies, dedicated to the history and mindset of bodybuilding, and Colombian artist Gabriel Sierra experiments with our perception of present, space and time, inviting visitors to live through a déjà vu experience. A comprehensive program of theory and education events seeks to extrapolate those different yet not disparate experiences and expertise.
Building Modern Bodies. The Art of Bodybuilding
Curated by Jörg Scheller
Why did humans start shaping their bodies as if they were both sculptor and sculpture? When and with whom did this “iconic turn” of Western body culture take place? How closely is the hybrid, hyperbolic culture of bodybuilding of the postmodern era linked to the fine arts? The project equals a visual essay on the history of bodybuilding as art history, including various media and materials, originals, reproductions, artworks and living exponents such as a pumping station, lectures between gym equipment, guided tours with private trainings, professional bodybuilding performances, and sporty workshops with kids and teens.
November 20, 7:30–8pm
Performance with Toni Bellaroba, Isabel Woerner, Florian Wolf (bodybuilders)
November 29, 3–5pm
Famiiy workshop with Lorenz Hegi and Seline Fülscher (art educators)
December 10, January 7, 6:30–7:30pm & December 13, 3–4pm
Guided tours with Daniel Baumann (Director, Kunsthalle Zürich), Jörg Scheller (Curator), and Flora Klein (artist, December 10) or Jan Hofer (artist, December 13), followed by private trainings with Jörg Scheller
January 16, 3–4:30pm
Lectures and discussions with Jörg Scheller (curator), Beat Geser (President of the Swiss Bodybuilding and Fitness Association) and guests from various fields of science
They Printed It!
Invitation cards, press releases, inserts and other forms of artistic (self-) marketing
They Printed It! is a project consisting of an exhibition, a public workshop for visitors, several research collaborations, a series of talks and presentations, an online archive, and a print-on-demand publication. Everyone is invited to participate in the reconsideration of hundreds of documents which display and discuss how artists have created cheap and experimental artworks that can be understood as both art and self-marketing. After all, this is the logic of social media channels such as Instagram: everybody is an artist and the curator of his or her own self.
Symposium:
November 21, 11am–5pm
With Barbara Preisig (art historian) and Daniel Baumann (Director, Kunsthalle Zürich), David Platzker (Curator, Museum of Modern Art New York), Michael Riedel (artist), Christoph Schifferli (expert and collector), and Maja Wismer (art historian)
Seminars:
November 23–27, 11am–5pm
With Martin Jaeggi (critic and curator) and Marianne Müller (artist, Zurich University of the Arts)
November 24, December 1, 8, & 15, 2–3:45pm
With Simon Baier (Institute of Art History, University of Zurich)
December 05, 11am–5pm
With Michael Birchall (Curating Program, Zurich University of the Arts)
Book launches:
November 24, 7–8:30pm
Swiss Awards 2015, with Léa Fluck (curator) and Mathis Altmann (artist), Chus Martínez (Director, Institut Kunst, Basel), and Alain Quemin (sociologist)
December 17, 6–8pm (on view through December 20)
Nieves & Innen Library, with Benjamin Sommerhalder and Aaron Fabian (publishers and graphic designers)
Talks:
November 26, 6–7pm
With Alexandra Blättler (curator) and Daniel Baumann (Director, Kunsthalle Zürich)
December 3, 6:30–7:30pm
With Martin Jaeggi (critic and curator) and Marianne Müller (artist)
January 14, 6:30–7:30pm
With Arthur Fink (art historian) and Julia Moritz (Curator, Theory & Programs, Kunsthalle Zürich)
January 21, 6:30–7:30pm
With Gesa Schneider (Director, Literaturhaus Zürich) and Julia Moritz
Publication:
The project is accompanied by a thematic edition of the journal on-curating.org, edited by Dorothee Richter (Curating Program, Zurich University of the Arts) and Maja Wismer (art historian).
Gabriel Sierra: Before Present
Artist Gabriel Sierra (b. 1975) lives and works in Bogota. He uses architectural spaces in order to expose and manipulate the immanent psychic dimension of these structures. Architectural spaces and rooms are man-made and therefore imbued with man’s visions, fears, and beliefs; they seep into the white walls, hide behind the elegant wallpaper, and slumber beneath the carefully placed parquet floors—waiting for their moment, jumbling past and present. On the last day of this exhibition, Gabriel Sierra and guests from various fields of knowledge will inquire after the peculiar nature of déjà-vu situations and their potential for alternative time-space-experience.
February 7, 3–4:30pm
Artist talk with Gabriel Serra & Daniel Baumann & special guests, followed by finissage drinks
The exhibition Before Present by Garbiel Sierra is generously supported by artEDU.
The project They Printed It! is generously supported by ProHelvetia.
Kunsthalle Zürich receives generous funding from: Stadt Zürich Kultur, Kanton Zürich Fachstelle Kultur, Zürcher Kantonalbank—Partner of Kunsthalle Zürich, LUMA Foundation, and Whale Foundation.