Press release
Review : videos and films from the Pierre
Huber collection
Exhibitions 4 June - 3 September 2006
opening 3 june at 6 pm
Candice Breitz, David Claerbout, Rineke Dijkstra, Sylvie Fleury,
Rodney Graham, Isaac Julien, William Kentridge, Annika Larsson, Anna
Lindal, Maria Marshall, Shirin Neshat, Tony Oursler, Nam June Paik, Paul
Pfeiffer, Sturtevant, Francesco Vezzoli, Peili Zhang
Curator : Yves Aupetitallot
The Magasin exhibition shows some twenty video and film installations from
the Pierre Huber’s collection.
These large-scale installations are presented
in an exceptional manner based on the plans and instructions of the artists.
The exhibition spaces have been completely remodeled (for example, the work by
David Claerbout is shown according to his wishes in a corridor more than 20 meters
long).
Pierre Huber Collection
Pierre Huber, the famous Geneva-based gallerist renowned
for his decisive contribution to the reorganisation of Art Basel in the 1990s,
gave last June, the first ever public showing of a part of his personal collection
(Private
View 1980-2000 Collection Pierre Huber, Musée Cantonal des Beaux-Arts
de Lausanne, 14 June – 11 September 2005). It featured significant ensembles
of photographs, sculptures and installations made over the last twenty years
by artists from both America (Jim Shaw, Mike Kelley, Cindy Sherman, etc. )
and Europe (Franz West, Thomas Ruff, Rineke Dijkstra,etc.).
The modes of collecting have borrowed the paths of different artistic scenes, traveled in the company of clearly named smugglers and actors, for two decades: Robert Nickas, John Armleder, and others besides.
They have favored the progressive emergence of a stream of specific traits
of which the articulation, having become autonomous, colors the identity of
the collection. An open identity that is, originally, nurtured by the conjunction
of opposite traits of a double relationship to painting. The almost founding
figure of Tapiès, author of a materialist and almost sensual painting—thick,
tormented, and transparent in his materials and his tools—meets the “constructivist” Swiss
tradition that Minimalism and neo-geo have reactivated. The academic sources
of these beginnings are quickly enriched by the eruption and the banalization
of pop culture and the “forest of signs” of the media at the heart
of artistic practices. These are clearly incarnated in the photographic medium,
substituted for an absent painting. The painting from the beginning of Pierre
Huber the collector is therefore considerably strengthened by American and
European photography of the 1980s and 1990s. Video enters into the collection
in such a manner that, at the same time, photography appears to belong to the
last decade, and video has succeeded it.
Collecting video works
In the accompanying book edited by Yves Aupetitallot (Private View 1980-2000 Collection Pierre Huber, JRP-Ringier, Zurich), Pierre Huber spoke as follows about the prominence of video work in his collection:
“Video is indeed, strongly present, because I think that, as was the
case with photography for the previous generation, it has become the privileged
mode of expression for the new generation, and for this reason is of interest
to collectors. Video is important as long as it addresses contemporary art
and develops a language different from that of cinema or television. […]
The situation is changing very quickly, what with increasingly sophisticated
technology and constantly improving integration into private interiors. For
example, I know an American collector who built a transparent wall in or on
which he shows his videos. For some of his new pieces, Bill Viola had special
flat screens made that were sold with the videos. Without a doubt, collectors
are going to have the technical equipment fitted that they need to make their
collection visible. The days when video pieces used to be watched on a TV in
the family living room are well behind us.”
The entry of video into the collection is emphasized by two simultaneous factors:
the opening up of non-Western artistic practices and a strong interest in the
discovery of young artists. Recognized as one of the revelatorsof
Chinese art, Pierre Huber is also familiar with the biennales of Istanbul,
New Delhi, and Havana. He enriches his collection with video pieces from young
artists who are presented there, or that he discovers in his frequent studio
visits. The videos that he collects, or more precisely the “luminous
moving images” thus collected, are essentially videos, sometimes slide
shows (Kader Attia, Jonathan Monk), as well as films (Paul Pfeiffer). In the
existing category of video, his choices can be compared to the questions running
through an anthology of texts on video edited by Gregory Battcock in 1978.
In this classic book, the basic lines of an interrogation that has been attached
to video since its emergence are outlined: “What is video art? How does
this art differ from commercial television? Is video art linked to such traditional
art forms such as painting and sculpture?” Among the possible hypotheses,
Pierre Huber has very clearly rejected that of video as a reduced form of cinema
or the poor facsimile of film in the form of television, in favor of a redeployment “in
movement” of painting and sculpture. The object-projection supports of
Matt Collishaw and Tony Oursler are sculptural in quality, as are the installations
of Anna Lindal. But, for at least half the works of the collection, we are
more in the presence of slides that generate their own space of projection
(David Claerbout with Rocking Chair for example), or that play with
existing space, taking the place of an architectural element (Kutlug Ataman’s
six screens that make up the base of a wall or Sturtevant’s seven screens
that underline the dimensions of a narrow space like a tunnel or corridor, and
which they punctuate). For the other significant portion of the collection,
the works use a projection screen that technology thinks of more and more as
a both constructive and decorative wall in a private interior. Thus the screen
takes the place of painting or the large-format photography that succeeded
it.
Magasin’s exhibition
The collection numbers about a hundred videos, films and slide shows. efore
making any kind of selection, it seemed important not to fall into the temptation
of showing the size of the collection through over-accumulation. On the contrary,
we have chosen to show a limited selection of works.
This choice is in accordance with the nature of the exhibition spaces, and
the possibility to adapt them to the sizes of the works we retained, as well
as the intention to construct a clear and comprehensible path through the rooms.
The central corridor located under the interior glass roof connects a series
of large rooms (9 x 12 m for Shirin Neshat; 22 x 5 m for David Claerbout) that
provide the videos with their specific installation spaces. The works are presented
according as closely as possible to their original installation requirements
as defined by the artists themselves, with whom we worked in close collaboration.
At the center of the spaces, we have set up a space for a pause, where some
smaller sized object-based works are gathered.
A publication accompanies the exhibition:
- A catalogue dedicated
to video works of the Pierre Huber Collection, as a complement to the book published
in 2005, (Private View 1980-2000 Collection
Pierre Huber, JRP-Ringier, Zurich). Review: videos and films
Collection Pierre Huber, 96 pages, 24,5 x 32,5 cm, text by Yves Aupetitallot,
French / English, 70 coloured illustrations, hard cover, 35 €
In autumn,
a book of interviews by Yves Aupetitallot should be published, with collectors
on the status and role of private collections in Europe today. Among them,
Pierre Huber and François Pinault.
Checklist
Candice Breitz
Karaoke, 2000
Video installation, 10 chanels, colour, sound,
loop
David Claerbout
The Rocking Chair, 2003
Video installation, 2 chanels, black
and white, sound
Rineke Dijkstra
Annemiek (I wanna be with you), 1997
Video, colour, sound, 4’
Sylvie Fleury
Strange Fire, 2005
Video, colour, music by Sidney Stücki, 7’
Rodney Graham
A Reverie Interrupted by the Police, 2003
35 mm film transferred
on video, colour, sound, 7’ 59’’
Isaac Julien
Trussed, 1996
Video installation, 16 mm films transferred on video, 2
chanels, black and white, sound, 10’
William Kentridge
Ulisse : Echo Scan Slide Bottle,
1998
Video installation, 3 chanels, colour, sound, 7’ loop
Annika Larsson
Fire, 2005
Video, colour, sound, 18’30’’
Anna Lindal
Borders, 1999-2000
Video installation, 4 chanels, colour, sound,
24’ 30’’ loop,
shelves, objects and photographs, 200 x 270 x 55 cm
Maria Marshall
When I grow up I want to be a cooker,1998
35
mm film transferred on video, colour, silent, 19'
Shirin Neshat
Zarin, 2005
Super 35 mm film transferred on video, colour, sound, 20’30’’
Tony
Oursler
Whatever You Want, 1995
Video installation, 2 chanels, colour,
sound, suitcase
Nam June Paik
Main Channel Matrix, 1993-1996
Video installation, 2 chanels,
colour, music by David Bowie, 65 screens, 1 computer,
335,5 x 333,5 x 66 cm
Paul Pfeiffer
Live Evil (Bucarest), 2004
Video installation, 2 chanels, 50’’ loop,
colour, silent, image size 30,48 x 20,32 cm
Sturtevant
The Dark Threat of Absence Fragmented and Sliced,
2002
Video installation, 7 chanels,colour, sound, loop
Francesco Vezzoli
An Embroidered Trilogy, 1997 - 1999
Épisode 1 :
Ok, the praz is right !
Épisode 2 : Il sogno di venere
Épisode
3 : The End (teleteatro)
Video, colour, sound, episode 1: 5’10’’, episode
2: 4’25’’’,
episode 3: 4’30’’
Peili Zhang
Uncertain Pleasure, 1996
Video installation, 4 chanels, colour, silent,
30’