Under Destruction
April 6–August 7, 2011
Swiss Institute
495 Broadway 3rd Floor
New York, NY 10012
T 212-925-2035
F 212-925-2040
info [at] swissinstitute.net
Curated by Gianni Jetzer and Chris Sharp
Under Destruction is a group exhibition featuring 20 internationally renowned contemporary artists that examine the use and role of destruction in today’s art. Fifty-one years after Swiss artist Jean Tinguely’s historic auto-destructive machine Homage to New York at MoMA (1960), the present exhibition proposes a series of alternative approaches to the theme of destruction. Initially presented at the Museum Tinguely in Basel as one large exhibition in 2010, Under Destruction is divided into three successive chapters for its incarnation at Swiss Institute. Varying significantly from one another, each chapter features works loosely grouped together as much according to theme as to mood, and, although each chapter will function as an autonomous exhibition, three separate visits will be required to grasp the exhibition as a whole. This factor inevitably reflects the progressive, time-based nature of its subject matter while describing the narrative arc that links the three parts together.
On view until August 7: Chapter III, with works by Alexander Gutke, Kris Martin, Jonathan Schipper, Ariel Schlesinger, and Roman Signer, is paired down to a comparatively restrained, but no less powerful selection of works. It recapitulates the theme of memento mori present in all three parts.
In conjunction with the exhibition, a catalog edited by Gianni Jetzer and Chris Sharp has been published by Distanz, with texts by Barbara Casavecchia, Boris Groys, Martin Herbert, Justin Hoffmann, Gianni Jetzer, Piper Marshall, Chris Sharp, Roland Wetzel, and Michael Wilson.
Order the catalog online.
A co-operation with Museum Tinguely, Basel
