The exhibition „La métamorphose de l‘art imprimé. Contemporary French-Swiss editions and serial unique works“ presents seventeen new works by three generations of Suisse Romande artists. This exhibition, conceived as a bridging project, explores not only contemporary artistic practices in French-speaking Switzerland, but also the question of what prints and editions can be today. Of course, this question cannot be answered in its entirety, but the métamorphosis of prints in this exhibition spans a broad field from Cibachrome to linocut, silkscreen, inkjet and aquatint etchings, to collages, thermoformed sculptures and wall pieces, and thus explores the work of contemporary editions in Western Switzerland and beyond. Even though the title of the exhibition bears the geographical indications, like contemporary art it is marked by internationality and shows the artists as ambassadors in the world, whether Olivier Mosset, who lives in Arizona, Valérie Favre, who holds the professorship for painting at the UdK Berlin, or Carmen Perrin and Alfredo Aceto, who originally come from Bolivia and Italy respectively. Admission to the exhibition is free-of-charge.
Many of the works for the exhibition are conceived as serial unique pieces and thus play with the question of what a printed edition, a multiple or a unique piece can be: Alfredo Aceto conceived a large felt tie as a wall-mounted object, each of the Beuysisch-looking work is provided with a different tie pin chosen by the artist.
Philippe Decrauzat created three new series of works that refer to his last fi lm Replica (2019): These include eleven unique Cibachrome works, 22 different excerpts from Mies van der Rohe‘s Barcelona Pavilion, and 22 inkjets of a geometric-abstract representation of a fi lm reel. Valérie Favre produced two new collaged silkscreen works that explore the themes of gender and identity politics by examining artistic and historical references to Virginia Woolf and Max Bill from Zurich. Sylvie Fleury designed four large banners in very small print runs with the slogan „She Devils On Wheels“; each of the four works in different colors was hand-screened with a stencil and hand applied with brandname rivets.
Three salmon-shaped paintings by Louisa Gagliardi have been realized as Photoshop paintings by inkjet printing on cardboard, similarly to her originals, and show people trapped in spaces and objects - each work has been hand painted by the artist with a nail polish finish. Olivier Mosset produced a golden grid in screenprinting - the minimalist grid, an archetype of 20th century abstract art, refers to a building art project in the Barolo region of Italy.
With her aquatint etching „ACIDES“, Carmen Perrin examines the effect of acid for gravure printing, the linguistic-objective form of the medium of etching, as a reference in a color spectrum from light to dark.
Denis Savary created two expansive works of the archive narratives around Corinna Bille and Salvador Dalí: a large plastic object of an erotic-looking black strawberry - „Corinna“ - made of painted, thermoformed plastic and a series of seven larger-than-life unique parasols, produced as linocuts with the title „Figueras“; they refer to the native town of Salvador Dalí, who, among other things, designed the logo and colouring of the parasols for
the Chupa Chups company.
