Barbara Seiler

 ‘Ahoi, ahoi Des Admirals’ is a group exhibition dedicated to performance art with a three-day program of performances during Zurich Art Weekend from 07 – 09 June, 2024. Distinguished from other forms of art by the five elements: time, space, body and presence of the artist, and the relation between the creator and the public, this exhibition explores questions of curating, staging and collecting performance art.

The title derives from the simultaneous poem ‘L’amiral cherche une maison a louer’ by Tristan Tzara, Marcel Janco and Richard Huelsenbeck, performed at Cabaret Voltaire in Zurich on 31 March, 1916, just 500 meters from our gallery location. It was stimulated by the desire to apply the same simultaneous principles in poetry that the Surrealist painters – Picasso, Braque, Picabia, Duchamp-Villon and Delay – experimented with in the transmutation of objects and colors in the first Cubist paintings.

 ‘Ahoi, ahoi Des Admirals’ examines various forms of performance art in relation to time, space, the body and presence of the artist, and the relation between the artist and the audience: performances on view over the course of three days may last a few minutes or up to an hour, they are happening in the gallery space, outside, or solely in the viewers imagination, they are performed by the artist, by actors, dancers, puppets, and even the audience, they use word and language, a narrative text, or are expressed through the body of dancers, and topics range from gender identity, post-colonialism, culture, feelings of belonging and alienation, surrealism and queer history. What combines them all is their ephemeral characteristic, which makes it at the same time intense and elusive.

Two performances, ‘damned and doomed’ by Gregory Tara Hari and ‘unknowing, unearthing’ by Latefa Wiersch, New Kyd and Tiran Willemse have been specifically conceived for this exhibition and the gallery space. ‘damned and doomed’, a one-person performance by Gregory Tara Hari(b.1993) explores the imagined power of cursing as a means of coping with grief, anger, and societal disillusionment in the context of misrepresentation of East- and South East Asian women in Western society and media, and the behavior of predominantly western and white tourists in Southeast Asia and their interactions with local culture and customs in regards to respect and representation. Wearing a green costume, inspired by the vengeful spirit of the banana tree ‘Nang Tani’, and silver finger nails extensions, which are traditionally used in dance and theater throughout Southeast Asia, Hari recites existing texts from films, songs, and political statements, and combines them with invented texts. Drawing upon experiences he highlights examples of misrepresentation in Swiss films, such as ‘Leo Sunnyboy’ and ‘Gekauftes Glück’, along with the social context of migration stories. The prevalence of raw violence in Thai news coverage and Thai soap operas, such as ‘Ruan That’, and the use of swearing as a raw and honest expression of emotion, challenges societal norms and offers a glimpse into the complexities of cultural identity and injustice. The performance ‘unknowing, unearthing’ is a collaboration between Latefa Wiersch (b. 1983), New Kyd, and Tiran Willemse. Through the use of body, movement, sound, text, costumes, and puppets that intertwine, transform, and exchange roles, the work explores the unfamiliar within the familiar. The process of humanization of ‘objects’ as well as its opposite: dehumanization, becoming object-like addresses xenophobia and racism and attempts to counteract these by creating a space for new ways of thinking and acting, a different vision of the world – ambivalent, nonsensical, and disordered. The performance makes a connection to the Zurich Dadaist, who fled during WWI and imagined a similar world of ‘exotic’ African countries, admiring, imitating and mocking their masks, dances and rhythms. Willemse, New Kyd and Wiersch, drawing inspiration from Adam Pendleton’s Black Dada Manifesto, look back at Dada to be able to look forward: to retell history, to be in the present, to grasp, and to let go.

‘I want to say something!’ by Martina-Sofie Wildberger (b. 1985) is a polyphonic improvisation with the words I / WANT / TO / SAY / SOMETHING. Similar to the simultaneous poem ‘L’amiral cherche une maison a louer’, the performance uses text and language to explore the power and the loss thereof of words. For thirty minutes three performers are looping these words in other rhythms, intensities and spatial configurations, inquiring the multiple possibilities of creating meaning with these five words: I / SAY I / WANT / SOMETHING, SAY! SAY / SOMETHING! When said in loops the meaning of a given word can slide semantically: through repetition WANT becomes WON’T or WANT; WANT / TO can be ONE TWO and SAY is phonetically the same as “six” in Italian. The performers examine how meaning changes through the tone of their voice and our physical interaction with the space creating an environment that can be calm, loud, alarming, calming, solitary or comfortable. Always connected to each other, at times they speak together and at other times alone. In this collective speaking the performers maintain an individual voice that explores different situations where language creates, transforms and sometimes loses its power.

Words and their meanings are also at the heart of Guillaume Pilet (b. 1984) and Lin Zhao’s narrative performance ‘Before we Met’. The performance script is derived from the chronological sequence of text messages exchanged between the two performers over several days following their match on the gay dating app Grindr, culminating in questions about the right entrance and floor number just seconds before they met in person for the first time. For both, English is a foreign language. Misunderstandings can quickly develop their own dynamics, potentially jeopardizing and ending the new, still fragile relationship. Their communication is marked by personal insecurities, biographical anecdotes, and practical information, reflecting the convergence of two different cultures: the ‚local‘ Lin Zhao and the artist-in-residence from Switzerland, Guillaume Pilet, who was completing an artist residency in Shanghai with Pro Helvetia in 2018. ‘Before we Met’ was first performed in January 2020 during Guillaume Pilet’s inaugural solo exhibition at Barbara Seiler Galerie, at a time when the pandemic had already hit Asia but was still largely ignored in the Western world. Four years later, Pilet and Zhao are re-enacting the performance, manifesting the evolution of their personal history and leading to a double time dimension, and as such referencing the original exhibition title ‘Double Happiness’ or 囍.

Sophie Jung (b. 1982) works across text, sculpture and performance, navigating the politics of re/re/representation and challenging the selective silencing that happens by concluding. She employs humor, shame, the absurd, raw anger, rhythm and rhyme, slapstick, hardship, friendship and a constant stream of slippages. Her sculptural work consists of bodies made up of both found and haphazardly produced attributes and stands as a network of abiding incompletion, an ever changing choir of urgencies and pleasures, traumas and manifestations that communally relay between dominant and minor themes. Jung hopes for agnostic alliances, cross-material solidarity and assemblages that defy resolution. Her approach to “stuff”—both legible utensil and metaphoric apparition sits somewhere between materialist responsibility and wild becoming. Her writing exists in the tradition of écriture feminine and lives as polyvocal collage, often materialized and extended collaboratively. ‘Libretto’ is a group of sculptures, of which each has its own performance, which can be activated by the artist.

Two performances in this exhibition, ‘To Die’ by Shana Lutker and ‘You’ve crossed the line!’ by Dina Danish, are defined as participatory performance, in which the audience – willingly or unwillingly – is engaged in the creative process.  In this respect, the artist is seen as a collaborator and a co-producer of the situation (with the audience), and these situations can often have an unclear beginning or end. Titled ‘To Die,’ Shana Lukter(b. 1978) invites the viewer to enact a score in a predetermined location in the gallery space. ‘To Die’ refers to a dance performance titled ‘Der Tod’ of Valeska Gert (1892-1978), an important representative of avant-garde dance in the 1920s. Gert analyzed the limits of societal conventions and expressed the insights with her body. Gert could be by turns grotesque, intense, mocking, pathetic or furious, performing with an anarchic intensity and artistic fearlessness which also recommended her to the Dada and Surrealists. For the past years, Lutker has taken on an artistic investigation of the history the Surrealists, visiting sites across Europe where their performances and performative actions took place, and delving into archives. These altercations highlight the conviction, absurdity, passion and calculation of this avant-garde group, and raise questions about the way that passion and art combine today. While the audience takes a deliberate decision to enact the score in Lutker’s ‘To Die’, ‘You’ve crossed the line!’ by Dina Danish (b. 1981) forces the audience to participate in the performance when entering or leaving the gallery space. At the entrance of a room, a white line is seen on the floor as if closing off the room. On the other side of the line (outside of the room) it reads: YOU’VE CROSSED THE LINE! The text is written in such a way that it is readable when leaving the room. ‘You’ve crossed the line!’ plays on the expression meaning, you have taken it too far, and on the performative element of physically crossing from one space to the other. It tells the audience that you have taken it too far, while also informing them that you have taken part in a performative gesture, the crossing of a line. A group of earlier performances, dealing with text and language, and inherent misunderstandings and failures of exercising languages, are shown in a loop of short videos. In her multi-media work, Danish focuses on language and structure, incorporating humor and misunderstanding. Her body of work combines conceptual art’s focus on language and structure with an interest in failure and misunderstanding, rendering her projects both conceptually solid and amusing.

Performance art has been an integral part of many artists that Barbara Seiler Galerie has represented over the years: in 2016 the gallery showed a performative installation by Ante Timmermans at Frieze London, in which five dancers performed the concept of ‘Pause’ in Samuel Becketts ‘Waiting for Godot’. Shana Lutker staged ‘Hear it Here’ in 2009, a performance in which the audience was invited to produce the dialogue on stage by talking into two microphones placed in the audience and feeding into the headphones of two actors on stage, who had to repeat what they heard, like human puppetry. Resulting in an unplanned and non-linear dialogue, the performance consists of the audience’s stream of unconsciousness, covering everything from politics to art to nonsense. Another performance, in which words and language were explored, was the series of tongue-twister performances by Dina Danish, who expressed the tongue-twister ‘Yellow butter, red jam, purple jelly…’ through three performers putting yellow butter on toast. Barbara Seiler believes that performance art should have a platform within the gallery context, and that galleries should represent performance art and artists working with performances with the same passion as other media like painting, sculptures or photography has been represented.

Dina Danish (*1981, Paris, FR) is an Egyptian artist and educator. Her multi-media work is inspired by overlooked historical moments, language, and structure, incorporating humor and misunderstanding. Her work has been presented at Amsterdam Museum (2023/24); Art Rotterdam (2022 and 2014); MAMbo Bologna (2019); Kunsthall Oslo (2011 and 2017); Stedelijk Museum Schiedam, NL (2015); South London Gallery (2014); and De Appel Arts Centre, Amsterdam (2013). Her work is held in several collections including De Nederlandsche Bank, Nomas Foundation, ABN Amro Collection, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and MoMA. She has been rewarded with different awards including Barclay Simpson, San Francisco (2008), and illy Present Future Prize, Turin IT (2011). Danish studied at the American University in Cairo and California College of the Arts. She was Artist in Residence at The American Academy, Rome (2019); Rose Residency Programme MAMbo, Bologna (2018); A.I.R. Dubai (2013); and Rijksakademie, Amsterdam; PiST, Istanbul (2011/12). Danish teaches at Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam.

Gregory Tara Hari (*1993, Richterswil, Zürich, CH) is an artist with focus on performance and visual arts. His practice is based on artistic research with a broad interest in political and social issues. His works move between historical and present day matters and cover fields such as cultures, colonialism, queer studies, and architecture. Recent exhibitions include Cantonale Bern Jura, Centre d’art Pasquart, Biel/Bienne (2023); zentral!,Kunstmuseum Luzern (2023); Werkschau, Museum Haus Konstruktiv, Zürich (2023); Swiss Art Awards, Basel (2022 and 2023); I, Artist, Kunsthalle Winterthur (2022); OI FUTURO, Instituto de inovação e criatividade, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (2018); among others. Hari was Artist in Residence at Fondation Suisse I Pavillon Le Corbusier, Paris, France (2023); Cape Town, Pro Helvetia Johannesburg, South Africa (2021/22); Cité International des Arts, Paris, France (2020); and Island Iceland Offshore Project, Seyðisfjörður (2015). He has been awarded Kiefer Hablitzel I Göhner Kunstpreis (2023) and a Werkbeitrag Kanton Zürich (2023). Hari studied at Basel Academy of Art and Design FHNW.

Shana Lutker (*1978, Northport, New York, US) is a Los Angeles-based artist. Her multidisciplinary practice focuses on the intersection between history and dream, memory and the unconscious and are often synthesized from historical and theoretical research. Lutker’s work has been presented at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Pérez Art Museum Miami, Vielmetter Los Angeles, and Barbara Seiler Galerie in Zürich. Her work was included in the 2014 Whitney Biennial, Performa 13, and many US and international venues including the SculptureCenter, Hauser & Wirth, Cabaret Voltaire, Tate St. Ives, CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Art, Moscow Museum of Modern Art, and Orange County Museum of Art. Lutker was Artist in Residence at Vermont College of Fine Arts, Montpelier, VT (2020); Pioneer Works, Brooklyn, New York (2013/14); Atlantic Center for the Arts, Florida (2012), Cité des Art Internationales, Paris (2012); SOMA, Mexico (2010); among others. From 2014-2021, Lutker served as Executive Director of Project X Foundation for Art & Criticism, the nonprofit publisher of X-TRA. She received her MFA from UCLA and BA from Brown University.

Sophie Jung (*1982, Luxembourg, LUX) is a performance and installation artist. Her work is based on performance, objects, and language – often in an installation format, with repetitions, references, and possible meanings. Through her performances, she negotiates philosophical and contemporary societal issues, challenging clear-cut narratives with ephemeral, multi-voiced stories. Recent exhibitions include When the Wind Blows, KunstHaus Wien (2022); Sanetroyem, E.A. Shared Space (2021); They Might Stay The Night, Casino Luxembourg (2020); Unsetting, Istituto Svizzero, Milan (2020); Taxpayer’s Money, Frieze LIVE, London (2019); Dramatis Personae, JOAN, LA (2019); and The Bigger Sleep, Kunstmuseum Basel (2018). She was awarded with the Swiss Art Awards twice (2016 and 2019) and was the recipient of the Manor Kunstpreis (2018). Jung was Artist in Residenceat the Istituto Svizzero Roma (2022/23). She was on the jury of the Swiss Performance Art Award between 2017 and 2019. Jung is an external mentor at Institute for Art, Gender and Nature, HGK Basel, holds a Lehrauftrag for Performance at Akademie der Bildenden Künste Karlsruhe, and is a new member of the board of Kunsthalle Basel.

Guillaume Pilet (*1984, Payerne, CH) is an artist, critic and curator based in Lausanne. His works rearrange existing ideas and concepts without regard for hierarchies. He employs a variety of techniques and references, which are expressed in playful and daring arrangements, to explore the language of abstraction and the afterlife of forms, motifs, and techniques. Pilet’s works and performances were recently the subject of exhibitions at DuflonRacz, Bern (2023); Museum Haus Konstruktiv, Zürich (2021); Musée d’Art in Pully (2020); MAMCO, Genf (2019 and 2021); Musée Ariana, Genf (2019); Centre Culturel Suisse, Paris (2018); Museum Tinguely, Basel (2017); Musée cantonal des Beaux-Arts, Lausanne (2017); and Kunstallee São Paulo (2014). His works appear in several public and private collections, notably the FRAC Normandie Caen, the Musée cantonal des Beaux-Arts de Lausanne, the Fonds Municipal d’Art Contemporain Genève, the Fonds Cantonal d’Art Contemporain Genève, and the Fonds des Arts Plastiques of the City of Lausanne and the BNS Swiss National Bank. Pilet was awarded the Prix Mobilière (2008) and graduated from ÉCAL, University of Art and Design Lausanne with a bachelor’s and master’s degree in fine arts (BFA 2007, MFA 2010). He is a founding member of Tunnel Tunnel, an independent art space in Lausanne, since 2016.

Latefa Wiersch’s (*1982, Dortmund, DE) is a German Artist. Her installations and performances deal with questions around identity and body in the postcolonial present. In order to investigate what it means to be human in our society, the artist often constructs clichéd images. In particular, the doll is staged as an inanimate counterpart. Her work has been shown at la Ménagerie de verre/Centre culturel suisse (2024); Kunsthaus Zürich (2024); Centre d’Art Contemporain Genève (2022); Fondazione Sant’Elia/Istituto Svizzero Palermo (2022); Kunstmuseum Lucerne (2022); Schauspiel Dortmund (2021 and 2022); Theater Südpol Lucerne (2022 and 2020); Dampfzentrale Bern (2022 and 2020); Rote Fabrik (2022); Kunsthaus Langenthal (2022 and 2018); Museum Haus Konstruktiv (2019 and 2021); Swiss Art Awards (2023, 2021); Stadtgalerie Bern (2021), Zentrum Paul Klee in collaboration with Dampfzentrale (with Emma Murray, 2019); La Nef, Le Noirmont (2018); and Shedhalle Zürich (2018); among others. Wiersch was awarded with the Swiss Art Award (2023) and the Swiss Performance Art Award (2022) in collaboration with Rhoda Davids Abel and Dandara Modesto. She studied Art at the Universität der Künste Berlin and the Hochschule der Künste Bern.

Martina-Sofie Wildberger (*1985, Zurich, CH) is a performance artist exploring the power of language, alternative communication forms, and the relationship between written and oral expression. Her performances focus on voice and body, often interacting with the audience, delving into sound, meaning, and the impact of language and speech acts. Wildberger has performed at institutions including MACBA Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Buenos Aires (2024), Kunsthaus Baselland (2023), Centre d’art contemporain Le Lait (2021), Museum zu Allerheiligen Schaffhausen (2019), Tinguely-Museum Basel (2018), Haus Konstruktiv (2016), Kunsthaus Baselland, SALTS Basel, Centre d’Art Contemporain Genève, Kunsthalle Mulhouse, Palais de l’Athénée (2014), and Kunsthaus Aarau (2014). Wildberger has received prestigious awards such as the Manor Art Prize Schaffhausen (2019), various grants from Schaffhausen (2017 and 2022), Pro Helvetia (2017 and 2020), the Kiefer Hablützel Prize (2015), and the Swiss Art Award (2012). Wildberger has undertaken artist residencies in Buenos Aires (2023), Paris (2014), Berlin (2013 and 2016), and New York (2016), and was a fellow at the Istituto Svizzero di Roma in Italy (2018). Wildberger graduated from the Haute école d’art et de design – Genève (HEAD) in 2011 and earned a master’s degree in art history from the University of Geneva in 2014.

PERFORMANCE PROGRAM 07 – 09 JUNE:

Friday, 07 June

Ongoing:            Shana Lutker, To Die

Ongoing:            Dina Danish, You’ve crossed the line!

18:00 – 18:20      Latefa Wiersch, New Kyd, Tiran Willemse. unknowing, unearthing

19:00 – 19:30      Gregory Tara Hari, damned and doomed

Saturday, 08 June

Ongoing:            Shana Lutker, To Die

Ongoing:            Dina Danish, You’ve crossed the line!

15:00 – 15:30      Guillaume Pilet with Lin Zhao, Before We Met

16:00 – 16:30      Martina-Sofie Wildberger, Tobibi Bienz, Denise Hasler, I want to say something!

17:00 – 17:30      Gregory Tara Hari, damned and doomed

Sunday, 09 June

Ongoing:            Shana Lutker, To Die

Ongoing:            Dina Danish, You’ve crossed the line!

11:30 – 11:15      Sophie Jung, Libretto

12:30 – 12:15      Sophie Jung, Libretto

13:30 – 13:15      Sophie Jung, Libretto

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