The Good Life
By Vermeir & Heiremans in ‘7 Raumthesen’
Group exhibition curated by Susanne Neubauer
03.04.2014 – 10.05.2014
Opening Wednesday, 02.04.2014 / 18-20:00
Location: Rotwand Gallery, Lutherstrasse 34, CH-8004 Zurich
7 Raumthesen
(the human being is a kind of becoming, a state, a view, a situation—Otl Aicher, erweiterung des ich, 1987)
Curated by Susanne Neubauer
with videos and films by Gaëlle Boucand, Rodrigo Garcia Dutra, Simon Faithfull, John Smith, Anne-Mie van Kerckhoven, Vermeir & Heiremans, Shirin Youssefi
The exhibition 7 Raumthesen (7 Propositions on Space) is dedicated to the question how the architectural, built space and the “created reality” (“gemachte Realität”, Otl Aicher) relate to the subjectivity of people today. Inherent to such “created reality” is the question of proportionality, which is answered differently in each historical period.
In an essayistic, propositional, and open manner, the exhibition 7 Raumthesen presents an array of seven very different works capturing these highly complex situations at a particular moment in time. The selected works show spaces that are existential in nature. Architectural space, the house or building and its positioning within its surrounding, is shown as an area of protection and retreat, as a seismographic reflection of the lives of its inhabitants, as a symbol of prestige and as an investment, as a site of production with a life cycle, and as an expression of contemporary social structures and artistic norms.
The Good Life (A Guided Tour) by Vermeir & Heiremans illuminates the socio-economic revaluation of art-related spaces into high-priced lofts. The film shows a real estate agent guiding interested buyers through exhibition spaces. After being remodeled as apartments, these spaces will be transformed into a “unique iconic combination of art and architecture.” The investment project not only promises hip “urban living,” but through shared and representative spaces, such as the lobby and the bar, it also sells the access to a clearly selected social class. In the form of this “promotional film” the artists have found a both critical and revealing approach to investigating processes related to the appropriation of a certain way of living and the desire for personal creativity, which can also be purchased with expensive gallery art and a corresponding lifestyle.
Read more about the exhibition here.