The Little Art Window: Roman Signer "VIER APFEL": Gstaad
THE LITTLE ART WINDOW is a new and innovative vitrine nestled into an old chalet in the heart of Gstaad (Switzlerand) that will showcase a tri-annual programme of bespoke installations by leading contemporary artists.
Address: 4 Altelauenenstrasse, just off the main promenade, around the corner from the Posthotel Rossli.
Contact and info: info@varenne.art / +41 79 326 66 60
THE LITTLE ART WINDOW is proud to present its inaugural show: Vier Apfel / Four Apples (2011-2021) by Swiss conceptual artist Roman Signer. This site specific "time-sculpture" for which Signer has produced a portfolio of 4 images in an edition of 10, will open on May 8th and run until August 1st.
ROMAN SIGNER
Amongst Switzerland’s most important artists and often regarded as belonging to the tradition of Swiss engineer-artists such as Fischli and Weiss and Jean Tinguely, Signer has been a major figure on the international contemporary art scene since the 1970s. He aligns sculpture with time and records the results with photography or video, to create what have become known as ‘time-sculptures’ or ‘sculptural happenings’. Known for his use of everyday items such as tables, chairs – apples, as in the present work – all of which have distinct purposes and associations, he detaches them from their typical functions and transforms them through time into something quite different and unexpected.
Signer was once posed the question, “Do you think a lot about the meaning or background of your works?” to which he answered “No. I read a lot, about avalanches, dams, volcanic eruptions, fire fighters, architecture, weather, but I draw my inspiration not from books or from other art works. I just want to ask the basic questions again and again. I am neither a craftsman nor an intellectual. Something in between – a game-player. I’m just here. I’m still here. I upset some, others I delight.”
Born in 1938 in Appenzell, Switzerland Signer currently lives and works in St. Gallen. Signer’s works have been included in countless exhibitions worldwide over the last thirty years including in recent solo shows at the Barbican Centre, London (2015), Tate? NY major institutions.
