1994bonheur
le bonheur est toujours là où on le place, malheureusement on le place toujours là où on n’est pas, 1994
Video installation, Kunsthaus Glarus. Curated by Annette Schindler.
Luck is what Vreneli, the title figure from the saga Vrenelis Gärtli, unfortunately didn’t have when she tried to start a garden on the Glärnisch mountain. Emancipated from the local authorities and unimpressed by the grim demons, she was finally taught her lesson by the masses of snow that covered her up forever. Up to the year 2003, when because of the climate change the eternal snow melted, the hilltop called Vreneli’s garden warned of social presumption.
Chiarenza & Hauser dedicated their exhibition to peripheral zones that constitute urban structures. A video shown on a monitor in a provisional-looking shack at the entrance inquires into the reference point of collective memory. Three people (Fritz Knobler, Dorli Blumer and Annette Schindler) tell the saga of Vreneli’s garden from the way they remember it.
On the wall of the exhibition room we see a photograph of the Glarner Kunstverein board members who seem to be scouring the snow patch with field glasses. Another photograph printed on cloth shows another snow landscape that is lit by fireworks. In a military context these serve to locate the enemy, modernizing the mythic control system.
The cafeteria tables and chairs that had been moved to the exhibition room form small islands of recreation. They are furnished with glasses, water pitchers and photos of allotment gardens. Conversations with allotment gardeners from Glarus, playing on a cassette recorder, link up with the garden pictures.
(Excerpt from text by Susann Wintsch, in: we save what you give, monograph on RELAX, A project by edition fink through Verlag für moderne Kunst Nürnberg, 2006)
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