Mai-Thu Perret shares her – fictional – connection to the countryside, which for her represents a mental retreat and an alternative to life in the city: “No More City”, the title of one of her short stories, is also a central topos for her visual art. She refers to the dropout motif in cultural history, using the example of the British Arts and Crafts movement of the late 19th century and the artists’ colony at Switzerland’s Monte Verità in the early 20th century. For Perret, the pair of opposites “city – country” also symbolizes the contrast between engaged togetherness (city) and retreated inwardness (country).
“For me the country is a fictional place, a non-site.”
— Mai-Thu Perret
