Subsequent to the "Mahjong" exhibition (2005), efforts were made to organize an artists' exchange with China. As of 2007, with the help of the Chinese artist Ai Wei Wei an apartment-studio was set up in Beijing and made available for six months at a time to young Swiss artists. Over a period of two years, the GegenwART foundation and its patron Dr. h.c. Hansjörg Wyss supported this initiative and financed the stay of five artists/artist-couples there. These included the Geneva artists Marc Bauer, Sharyar Nashat and Pierre-Philippe Freymond, the Zurich artist Christian Vetter and the artist-brothers Cyril and Gregory Chapuisat from Founex. This group exhibition presents the artistic fruits of their exciting experiences, and also includes works by the artist Ana Roldan, who trained in Berne, is resident in Zurich and lived in the studio of the City of Zurich in Kunming for six months in 2008.

The sojourn in China made a lasting impression on all seven artists and is reflected in their work in different ways. The numerous large building-sites, the most striking expression of the fundamental change which the Middle Kingdom is undergoing, left a particular mark. Pierre-Philippe Freymond's photographs, for example, convey his preoccupation with the demolition of whole districts, the churned-up earth and the ever higher buttresses; Sharyar Nashat made a film about the casting of a concrete column; and the Chapuisat brothers again show themselves to be masters of sculptural and architectural spatial transformation. Christian Vetter's large paintings and cycle of drawings even display a fundamental change of style and theme, away from colour and towards abstraction. Ana Roldan, by contrast, engaged conceptually with Chinese history and with the importance of China as an economic power.

Concept: Kathleen Bühler
Curator:  Isabel Fluri

Both the exhibition and the catalogue are generously supported by the GegenwART Foundation, Dr. h.c. Hansjörg Wyss.


The exhibition 

Opening
Donnerstag, 19.11.2009, 18h30

Duration
20.11.2009 - 14.02.2010

Entrance Fee
CHF 7.- / red. CHF 5.-

Opening Times
Dienstag: 10h – 21h
Mittwoch – Sonntag: 10h – 17h

Holidays
Donnerstag, 24. Dezember 2009: 10h - 17h
Freitag, 25. Dezember 2009: geschlossen
Donnerstag, 31. Dezember 2009: 10h – 17h
Freitag, 1. Januar 2010: 10h – 17h
Samstag, 2. Januar 2010: 10h – 17h

Guided Tours for Groups
T + 41 31 328 09 11, F + 41 31 328 09 10,
vermittlung@kunstmuseumbern.ch

The Catalogue (in German / English)

Made in China - Scholarship holders of the Stiftung GegenwART Marc Bauer, Cyril und Gregory Chapuisat, Pierre-Philippe Freymond, Shahryar Nashat, Ana Roldán und Christian Vetter
hrsg. vom Kunstmuseum Bern, mit Texten von Kathleen Bühler und Isabel Fluri, Bern 2009, 80 Seiten, deutsch / english
CHF 20.-*

The Poster

F4 (89,5 x 128 cm)
CHF 20.-*







* all prices excl. postal fees / shippping fees, incl. MWST

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