Lovin’ it Symbol and Contradiction, 21 April / 2 June 2013

Artists: Gillian Wearing,Francis Alÿs, Berclaz de Sierre, Monica Bonvicini, Nicolas Faure, Noah Kalina, Walter Niedermayr, Susana Perrottet, Claire Pestaille, Pipilotti Rist, Nikki Rosato, Roman Signer, Bridget Smith, Kiki Smith, Levi van Veluw, Miwa Yanagi, and Renatus Zuercher

On Show: Family video and Photograph.

Press release:

Bromer art Collection, Landstrasse 53, 4914 Roggwil-Kaltenherberg, Switzerland, 21 April / 2 June 2013

In its inaugural exhibition ‹Lovin’ it›, the Bromer Art Collection, a museum whose collecting activity focuses on mountain painting and contemporary art, will show works by national and international contemporary artists. The exhibition’s title stands for the figments and fallacies of our times, the clichés and opposing opinions that shape our worldview. The majestic Matterhorn, the very epitome of the mountain, appeals to most tourists and Swiss residents. It has a high recognition value and has long become an emblem, if not even a product – reproduced and sold in the thousands. Yet what exactly does this symbol suggest today – or has it become a mere empty vessel for rigid and fossilised notions?

The Swiss Alps define the image of the Swiss Confederation around the globe, yet this outside perspective is often saturated with clichés. Indeed, long-established values are increasingly dissolving, leading to an ever-greater balancing act between tradition and the here and now. This moment of varied perspectives generates ambivalence and contradictions, yet at the same time these very inconsistencies make it possible to frame and project new worldviews. What artistic means and methods are there to find forms of representation for our times and question conventions? The exhibition seeks to dissolve habits and bring to the fore the moment of transgression of established boundaries. In this context, the focus is not on the mountain as a classic visual motif but rather as a platform for the projection of ideas, visions, impressions and human feelings – hope, disappointment, as well as criticism and anger. Man – central to the development and the shaping of worldviews – stands at the conceptual and dialogical core of the exhibition.

Next to works by Francis Alÿs, Berclaz de Sierre, Monica Bonvicini, Nicolas Faure, Noah Kalina, Walter Niedermayr, Susana Perrottet, Claire Pestaille, Pipilotti Rist, Nikki Rosato, Roman Signer, Bridget Smith, Kiki Smith, Levi van Veluw, Miwa Yanagi, and Renatus Zuercher, two world-famous video installations will be shown for the first time in Switzerland: the 5-channel projection ‹The End› by Ragnar Kjartansson (*1976), who in 2009 was the youngest representative of his country to take over the Icelandic pavilion at the Venice Biennale, and the installation ‹Sixty Minute Silence› by Gillian Wearing (*1963), with which the artist won the renowned British Turner Prize.

http://bromerartcollection.com/

Gillian WearingGillian Wearing

Gillian Wearing