Curator, Researcher and Writer in Zurich
Aio Frei is developing a four-part sound work for the replacement of a social housing estate in Zurich, which is intended to translate diverse relationships into ceramic sound bodies and resonances on site. Certain interfaces – or in the spatial sense: places of encounter – at the housing estate are emphasized by spefically composed sounds. … Continue reading Sound Cosmology, Aio Frei, 2023-2027
If a well-known chair was a drawing, its outline could be projected on anything. And – of course – it wouldn`t be a chair anymore. If a shape starts to circulate in various forms, it will be shared among different contexts. While some forms might become a rather generic reservoir of images through a permanent … Continue reading A chair, projected. 8.2.-23.3.2019
Rethink the modular reexamines the modular vision. The project focuses on relations we maintain with temporal sequences, spatial surroundings and other people. Seven internationally acclaimed architects and designers have joined forces with participants in seven USM masterclasses addressing this issue. Following the masterclasses workshop, the exhibition presents four perspectives on the topic: A. RHYTHM Modularity exists everywhere. Surfaces can be divided into grids, for instance, figures disposed regularly in space … Continue reading Rethink the Modular, 14.-19.4.2015
– I still have the keys to his appartment. – Yeah. but do you still have the keys to his heart, stupid bitch? Three women and a man fight about love and happiness in an antebellum southern mansion. Kalup Linzy’s film Keys to Our Heart (2008) combines emotional pathos with the quotidian lightness of soap … Continue reading Keys to our Heart, 13.-26.6.2012
Performance Project Liste 17 The young art fair in Basel has not only been an international platform for young galleries since the 1990s, it also initiated a special programme of performances in 2005. If you think of body-related stage performances, interventions in everyday-life-situations or lecture performances in the work of many artists in the past … Continue reading Gibst Du mir Steine, geb ich Dir Sand. 11.-17.6.2012
Grammatical structures provide different options for speaking about the third person. Featuring the attributes of either a person or a thing, this rather undefined figure always establishes a distance to the first person of „me“. Between the positions of the first and the third person, the group show is setting up a space that relates … Continue reading A Grammar of the Third Person, 30.6.-16.7.2011
Within the discussion on male role models in art, our emphasis will be now on theatrical and social roles of dandyism. Does the character of the Dandy still exist today? Swiss art historian Beat Wyss has doubted so for a while. In a society, in which consumption seems to be the only convention, the Dandy, … Continue reading A Last Flare-Up of Heroism Before Decadence, 15.8.2009
“Eternity” is one of those words we use without really having a concept of what they refer to. As an existential experience of our life-time and a metaphysical idea of something “beyond time”, our relationship with time is a philosophical evergreen. The Greek philosophers Plato and Aristotle always assumed that matter existed eternally when discussing … Continue reading The Eternal Flame, 10.8.-5.10.2008
Masculinity is often been expressed or even celebrated in moments of performances. Thus not consistent role models were shown in the very moment of a presentation, but rather particular fragments. They have to be constantly reconfigured during the act oft perfomance and therefore appear fragile in their definition. Also the conditions of execution and/or recording … Continue reading Palace, 2.-10.2.2008
The John Institute (Jean Claude Freymond-Guth, Burkhard Meltzer, Michael Hiltbrunner (2007-2009) has organised contemporary art exhibitions, performances, concerts, screenings and discussions at various venues from 2007-2012. The idea of an institute that cannot be found at a permanent adress, but rather forms new shapes with each appearence in public, originated from a debate on masculinities between the … Continue reading Role Model, 3.-23.3.2007
