künstler_innen: jessica auer, geoffrey jones, thomas kneubühler, andreas rutkauskas

kuratorin: geneviève chevalier

 

für lange zeit wurde kanadas landschaft sowie deren wahrnehmung mit unberührter wildnis gleichgestellt. wir kennen alle die ikonischen bilder der seen und der rocky mountains, insbesondere durch die malerei der group of seven zu beginn des 20. jahrhunderts. heutzutage hinterfragen kanadischen künstler diese stereotypen, auf die die mythologie immer wieder zurückgreift. für die jüngerer generation ist künstlerische forschung ein wichtiges instrument, und mit unterschiedlichen strategien werden die grenzen der traditionellen medien laufend durchbrochen.

 

die ausstellung fieldwork – contemporary photography from canada vereint arbeiten von vier künstlerinnen und künstlern, die alle in kanada leben und arbeiten. ihre werke beziehen sich auf die geographie und somit auch auf die landschaft kanadas. jessica auer geht in die legendären nationalparks und beobachtet die rituale der besucher, welche mit der landschaft konfrontiert sind. geoffrey jones baute eine single-pixel camera und untersucht damit in der arktis die farbe des lichts. mit dem blick eines europäischen einwanderers stellt thomas kneubühler fragen zum umgang mit grundbesitz und zur ausbeutung von bodenschätzen. und schließlich erkundet andreas rutkauskas die politische landschaft der 8891 km langen kanadisch-amerikanischen grenze von der ostküste bis nach alaska.

 

die im oslo8 gezeigten arbeiten sind das resultat von intensiven recherchen, meist in unzugänglichen gebieten, und haben in dem sinne einen ortspezifischen charakter. die herkunft der künstler sind so vielfältig wie ihre künstlerischen untersuchungen. gemeinsam ist ihnen, dass sie alle feldforschung betreiben. sie arbeiten manchmal allein, manchmal als team, und gleichzeitig in einem großen land mit einer relativ kurzen geschichte.

 

 

adventurers at heart, the artists participating in the exhibition fieldwork explore often remote and inaccessible sites which span great distances, or emblematic places linked to economic or social activities, uncovering in the process a series of issues in step with our contemporary times. fieldwork features the work of jessica auer, geoffrey jones, thomas kneubühler and andreas rutkauskas, whose practices take place beyond the walls of the studio, and are oriented towards research and exploration. the entirety of photo, video and installation works assembled for this exhibition evokes vast expanses that stray northward or unfold from east to west. resulting from the movement of artists across a territory that has been shaped by long-term natural phenomena, the works of auer, jones, kneubühler, and rutkauskas contribute to a reflection on the notion of landscape – and its fundamentally constructed nature.

 

in the context of her project studies on how to view landscape, jessica auer adopts a quasi-anthropological stance, directing her camera towards the ever-growing phenomenon of tourism and its players who are always set to travel the same well-trodden paths. working with static shots to capture the comings and goings of tourists filing past landscapes that present various ranges of sublimeness, studies on how to view landscape is embodied in a video and a pair of images composed of the photographs lake louise # 1 and glacier experience. the work exposes the way in which this landscape, comprised of a series of some of the most iconic (if not the most stereotypical) sites of canadian territory, is relentlessly photographed by visitors. in the age of digital technologies and social media, tourism alone generates an incredible amount of nearly identical images, inevitably leading to saturation. here, auer in a sense turns photographic practice back on itself, producing a work that reflects on its very raison d’être.

 

continuing on a quest that keeps bringing him closer to the nature of things, geoffrey jones crossed the tundra of the northwest territories up to the arctic circle. at first carried out like a methodical experiment, vous êtes ici involved collecting light samples based on geographic coordinates traveled by the artist. to this end, jones began by recording rays of boreal lights in the form of single pixels, using a device designed for this purpose. in the gallery, through a range of light beams emitted by four light panelsmade by the artist, vous êtes ici transmits some of the illumination captured in the north, the very essence of which has ostensibly been seized. under the guise of a scientific approach, jones’ work is imbued with the poetic character of what is fabulously impossible, evoking other illustrious quests undertaken by other great dreamers.

 

inextricably linked to the global financial market whose headquarters are located thousands of kilometers away from the sites of resource exploitation, the modern mining industry remains in large part inaccessible to the general public — as much by the relocation of its managers to free zones where “overly restrictive” regulatory and tax requirements can be evaded, as by the isolation of the sites from which ores are mined. land claim, the most recent body of work from the artist thomas kneubühler, explores three distinct sites through a series of photographs and video works: the raglan nickel mine located in the remote arctic, which has 800 employees; zug, a swiss tax haven where the mining company’s head office is located; and aupaluk, a village in nunavut threatened by a project to develop an iron ore mine. the work as a whole demonstrates some of the relationships of proximity and distance that characterize this sector of economic activity. these connections are also highlighted through the video forward looking statements via a sound-image synchronism based on an audio recording of a conference call held by the managers of oceanic iron ore corp, in addition to a tottering panorama through which the camera moves forward, skimming the surface of the tundra, which appears in all its ruggedness.

 

along a border marked by granite obelisks – monuments – and passing through urban, rural, and wild landscapes, andreas rutkauskas has documented a territory that straddles canada and the united states. the collection of images comprising the project borderline refers to a kind of network of sites, literally derived from an encounter with this artificial line that cuts through and runs alongside against both architectural and natural elements. the way these places are photographed makes them appear as if in suspension, existing outside of time. the strangeness that characterizes them comes from the materialization of an empty space to which they give shape – that of a path that snakes between the trees or dissolves between two shores. a deserted space, though under constant surveillance, the canada-us border as represented in borderline demonstrates the profound transformation of relations between these two nations and their respective inhabitants. paradoxically, rutkauskas’ photographs also have the power to instill a certain nostalgia — that of a vast country, which has yet to be fully discovered and occupied. this feeling, or perhaps something else altogether, seems to be at the root of the revisiting, researching and repeated photographing of these isolated places that the artist engages in.

per s-bahn: linie s3, haltestelle dreispitz. die s-bahn benötigt zwei minuten vom bahnhof sbb zur haltestelle dreispitz. die tramlinien 10, 11 und 16 führen aus unterschiedlichen richtungen zum dreispitz. wenn sie vom bahnhof her kommen, nehmen sie dort ein gelbes tram der linien 10 (richtung dornach) und steigen bei der haltestelle «dreispitz» aus. oder nehmen sie die Tramlinie 11 (richtung aesch) und steigen bei der haltestelle «ruchfeld» aus.