We are delighted to be able to introduce five up-and-coming artists, their artistic positions, practice and the ideas and intentions which inform it at this year’s Visarte. These artists are Flavia Trachsler, Ricardo Meli, Lark Ring, Angelos Merges and Leandra Agazzi. The works selected move between the media of painting, sculpture, drawing, instal- lation and conceptual art. Often in the context of an exhibition the concept behind the works on display fades into the background or, as far as the visitor is concerned, vanishes completely. With canonic symbolism provided, for instance, by religion becoming a thing of the past and contemporary artists, rather than solely relying on worldly imagery, drawing on highly individual vocabularies which consist of images, colours, sounds, shapes, words and other means of reaching the mind via the senses, the meaning an artwork is imbued with often remains obscured from the recipient. At times the recipient does not even recognize the artwork as imbued with meaning. After all, twentieth and twenty-first century art has not attached the label of randomness it has acquired to itself. However, as has remained unchanged since the days when carnations, lambs and red and blue garb evoked the same associations as a wooden cross still does today, the energy spent on most any artwork is of both a mental and a physical nature and the time it takes to complete it divided between toiling and thinking. It is probably not fair to say that certain artists, if they could, would gladly pull their thoughts from their ears, stick them to the walls of a white cube gallery and never touch a tool or browse catalogues for material they can afford again, but, visibly so or not, concepts have become so central to art, that the question if maybe it is fair after all still war- rants being asked. The concepts that lie at the center of the artworks on display in this exhibition range from research on the second world war to reflections on states of constraint and the meeting and expected clash of things as disparate as memories of youth and har- rowed refugees, connected only through the place on which the former were made and the latter stranded. In accordance with the complexity and delicacy of these and the other topics the exhibition revolves around, the approach taken to engaging with them was a sensitive one.
Curated by Leandra Agazzi
Catalogue of FOMO Art Space at Visarte
FOMO Art Space is a platform for alternative approaches which operate at the intersection of contemporary art and subversive forms of expres- sion. Monthly changing exhibitions foster an ongoing dialogue and allow visitors to experience art in an different and interactive way. In collaboration with changing curators, artists and cultural workers, the art association realizes and supports diverse projects that present con- temporary art from different perspectives. In addition to the exhibitions, FOMO Art Space provides space for discussion and the development of new concepts. As a meeting place where art is not only viewed, but also negotiated and reflected upon, the aim of the art association is to promote a critical and enjoyable engagement with contemporary art and to strengthen the courage to take experimental approaches.
Photo by Sebastian Lendenmann
Text by Mylène Seck
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