Intermezzo: Work|Documentation

Artists archives from Aarau, Bern, Luzern, St. Gallen, Trogen, and Winterthur

August 19 – September 9 2007

In the world of contemporary art, documentation of the artist’s work is a vital part of the information and distribution structures. Participation in all kinds of competitions require the submission of such documentation, be it for a public art project, a grant, or support for a specific exhibition project. Many artists nowadays consider only having a website about their work rather than making physical updates in the form of a documentation folder. Having a presence on the internet has become increasingly important, but practical needs still mean that an exclusively virtual representation of the work is not enough; the only solution seems to be to do both then. This being so, the amount of time spent on documentation rises again; and all well-meant criticism does not change the fact that administration and marketing of the artist’s own work has become a normal component of artistic production.
The exhibition looks at different archives of artists in Switzerland. In the main exhibition hall a selection of documentation archives have been rebuilt and offer a myriad variety of different artists’ documentations. In the dritte Raum a couple of Winterthur based artists turn their own documentation into mini installations and interventions. The exhibition not only shows neutral documentation as such, but also asks what the relationship between a work of art and its documentation is, and the potential that this might offer.

Oliver Kielmayer