Widmer+Theodoridis contemporary is extremely pleased to present the first Swisssingle exhibition by the artist team H+T Stegmayer. The three-part video work "sleeping artists | collecting - fetish" will be on display.

"sleeping artists | collecting - fetish" addresses the theme of image formation and collecting as the origin of art. When the fetishistic character of art is made apparent, then the role of the artist, the collector and the viewer can no longer be divided. The three-part video project captures the art collection and fetishes of the collector Francesco Conz who, since the 60s, followed and photographically documented his encounters with Austrian and international, primarily American artists. An archive bringing together the art of post-war Austria and American Fluxus and concept art forms the result.

In addition to the promised freedom of art, the utopia of art collecting, which in turn considers the collector as a part of this art, is brought to the fore. The increasing self- dramatisation of the collector dissolves the border between collector and artist and results in a threatening abundance of objets d'art.

The first part, "sleeping artists", captures every Austrian and American artist considered important to the project in a state of sleep. Thus created are portraits that not only raise the question of authenticity, deception, the course of time, immediacy, creation and identity, but also that of representation and death as the source of image formation.

The second part of the trilogy, "collecting", shows the impressively accumulated collection, which has taken on threatening dimensions. Objects, collages, signed photographs, editions and complete room installations present the passion for collecting as an obsessive reversal of freedom.

The third part is the video "fetish", which shows an entirely heterogenic collection of objects that, viewed without background information, are nothing more than everyday items. These objects, however, are exceptional in that they are all relics or remnants of artistic actions by such artists as Nitsch, Mühl, Brus, Kaprow, Hansen, Paik, Patterson et al., whose works (performances) were mostly transient.

Hannah Stegmayer is a university lecturer for cultural sciences and culture management and internationally active as a curator and author for various institutions. Toni Stegmayer trained as a sculptor and has worked ever since as a freelance sculptor and video artist.

Both artists live and work in Kiefersfelden, Germany.

at the Opening of H+T Stegmayer at Widmer+Theodoridis contemporary, Zurich

30 August 2008
Jordan Theodoridis with Hannah Stegmayer and Werner Widmer
sleeping artists
Photo: likeyou - the artnetwork
© Centrik Isler

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