Engadin Art Talks

Engadin Art Talks

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Hans Ulrich Obrist ist ein Schweizer Kunstkurator, Kritiker und Kunsthistoriker. Seit seiner ersten …

Etel Adnan ist eine libanesisch-amerikanische Dichterin, Essayistin und Malerin, die in Paris lebt. …

Michel Auder ist ein französischer Fotograf und Filmproduzent, der in Brooklyn, New York, lebt und a…

Bice Curiger ist eine Schweizer Kunsthistorikerin, Kuratorin, Kritikerin und Mitbegründerin von Park…

THINKING IN THIN AIR - ANTHOLOGY OF A DECADE: ENGADIN ART TALKS

Thomas Hirschhorn ist ein Schweizer Installationskünstler in Paris.

Quote

Let me say one thing about hope. I don’t know if you realize in America, that hope is really like saying bullshit these days. It’s not a very good subject for any American to talk about.

Barbara Stauffacher-Solomon

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HOPE LESS / LESS HOPE BY AI WEIWEI

PLATES BY MATTHEW LUTZ KINOY, NATSUKO UCHINO AND CERÁMICA LOS ARRAYANES

MUSEUM OF THE FUTURE: NOW WHAT?

U COME WELL OR UR WELCOME BY BARBARA STAUFFACHER SOLOMON

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Artist and former E.A.T. participant Denise Bertschi (@denisebertschi) is part of the group exhibition ‘Apropos Hodler’ at Kunsthaus Zürich (@kunsthauszuerich) with the experimental documentary ‘State Fiction’ and a series of textile works.

The film is shown amid Bertschi‘s art works suspended in mid-air: photographs of flowers taken by the Swiss “neutral” military men in the Korean DMZ, printed on silk textiles, which have been juxtaposed with slogans found in the Swiss Camp or in the surrounding Joint Security Area, which is under the jurisdiction of the United Nations Command (UNC).

‘State Fiction’ weaves together its narrative entirely from archival material, juxtaposing Super 8 film footage with sound recordings and voiced diary entries. Through a montage fraught with tension, the myth of Swiss neutrality is deconstructed while the “colonial gaze” becomes palpable in the encounter with the “other”.

With this exhibition, the Kunsthaus Zürich - which is home to one of the largest public collection of Hodler’s works - places the work of Ferdinand Hodler in the context of current discourses, bringing four themes of his work into the present day: landscapes; corporealities; belonging; and enigma/transcendence. Some 60 pieces by Hodler are joined by the works of 30 contemporary artists, among which is the compelling work by Bertschi.

The exhibition is on view until June 30.

#denisebertschi #statefiction #aproposhodler #kunsthauszürich #swissneutrality #colonialgaze

During the 2023 edition of Engadin Art Talks, participant Camille Henrot (@coelocanthe) screened her film ‘Saturday’ (2017). The film focuses on the Seventh-Day Adventist (SDA) Church – a Christian denomination that celebrates the Sabbath on Saturday and practices baptism by immersion. Through the figure of the SDA Church appear the themes of hope for a better life and the desire to flee the daily mundane, which here manifests in a religious mode, but takes form elsewhere in the practice of extreme sports.

Whether you spend your weekend praying, surfing or taking your dog for a walk, it is only during the moment of rest that you gain strength and hope. Such is the statement of Henrot’s film:

“To be able to hope, you need to be able to project in the future. And to be able to project in the future, you need the secret ingredient: rest. What you need is time. Time off, actually.”

The screening of the film was followed by the artist’s talk and a lively Q&A session on the purpose of Henrot’s practice, the filmmaking process and the attempt of creating an unprejudiced document. During her presentation, the artist explained why understanding communities such as the SDA emphasized her anthropological and ethnological approach.

Want to watch the video recording of Henrot’s presentation? Click on the link in our bio!

#camillehenrot #saturday #engadinarttalks #engadinarttalks2023 #eat #eat2023 #hoffnunghoffnung #rest #hope

A new artwork by artist and former E.A.T. participant Ibrahim Mahama (@ibrahimmahama3) transforms the Lakeside Terrace of the Barbican Centre (@barbicancentre), enveloping the building’s iconic concrete walls with approximately 2000 square metres of bespoke woven cloth.

The work titled ‘Purple Hibiscus’ has been created in collaboration with hundreds of craftspeople from Tamale in Ghana where the colossal panels of pink and purple fabric have been woven and sewn by hand, to be fitted to the brutalist planes of our building. 100 ‘batakaris’ – robes worn by Ghanaian kings – are embroidered onto the artwork. Often saved by families over generations, these precious textiles carry the imprints of the figures they once clothed, signifying the continued relevance of intergenerational knowledge. Ibrahim Mahama holds a deep interest in the life cycles of textiles and what can be learnt from the historical memories embedded within them.

The work is part of ‘Unravel: The Power & Politics of Textiles in Art’. In this major group exhibition, co-curated by the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam (@stedelijkmuseum), 50 international artists use textiles to communicate vital ideas about power, resistance and survival. From intimate hand-crafted pieces to monumental sculptural installations, these works offer narratives of violence, imperialism and exclusion alongside stories of resilience, love and hope.

The work will be shown as part of the exhibition at the Barbican Centre until May 26.

Photos © courtesy of Barbican Centre.

#ibrahimmahama #barbicancentre #stedelijkmuseumamsterdam #purplehibiscus #unravel #thepowerofpoliticsandtextilesinart #batakaris

Meet our advisory board!

Through this post, we’d like to extend sincere thanks to our advisory board and their invaluable contributions to Engadin Art Talks. Their guidance and expertise have been instrumental in fostering meaningful discourse among artists, scholars, and our audience, facilitating cross-pollination of knowledge and ideas.

Chris Dercon is a Belgian art historian, curator, and museum director. He studied Art History at the Universiteit Leiden as well as Theatre Research and Film Theory at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. Dercon worked as a curator at the Gemeentemuseum in The Hague and MoMA PS1 in New York City. In 1995, he was the curator of the Dutch contribution to the 46th Venice Biennale. Dercon was Director of Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam (1996-2003), Haus der Kunst in Munich (2003-2011), Tate Modern in London (2011-2016), and the Grand Palais in Paris (2019-2022). Since 2022, Dercon is Director of the Fondation Cartier in Paris.

#engadinarttalks #eat #engadinarttalks2024 #eat2024 #advisoryboard