2024GLinApropos
Gated Landscape
Lithograph with object
Monoprint, containing felt-tip and pencil drawings, printed by: Steindruckerei Wolfensberger, Zurich
in: Apropos Hodler. current perspectives on an iconKunsthaus Zurich, March 8 – June 30 2024,
Curated by Cathérine Hug and Sandra Gianfredda
Conceptual cooperation: Sabian Baumann, Ishita Chakraborty, RELAX (chiarenza & hauser & co)
Gated Landscape brings up questions as:
Is the landscape the property of a nation? Of a group? Of a single person?
Does paying for a ticket give you a better view?
The object is made of hemp, a textile material that is a robust alternative to plastic. The object casts a shadow, a visual reminder of a fence and of the term "gated community", i.e. a complex of residential buildings equipped with security devices.
The lithograph is an ensemble of five images: a cutout of a landscape, a document and three drawings. The cutout as the main surface is depicting a piece of impenetrable nature. It doesn’t offer a view on a spectacular landscape, but it shows a piece of nature without perspective or point of view.
Description of the document and the drawings embedded in the cutout of a landscape (from left to right):
Drawing 1 is depicting a barrier of trees and ditches, with a person on one side and a gathering of people on the other. It has been inspired by the exploration of stories on land expropriation from communities and peasants at the transition from the Middle Ages to modern times (with reference to authors such as Silvia Federici and Nicholas Blomley, especially with regard to the construction of fences and the protection of privatized land).
The document shows a person giving instructions on how to measure a field. It is an illustration from a handbook dating from 1617, which was used to instruct landowners on how to divide up their land efficiently.
Drawing 2 depicts a building in the mountains with its reflection in a lake. It is a pencil study based on tourist images of RESORTS in Switzerland. Resort is a word that is used in different languages without necessarily being defined in the same way. However, it always has the meaning of a safe place that is more or less exclusive.
Drawing 3 is not immediately visible, despite its shape overlaying a part of the landscape. It shows the outline of Europe in 2023, which - with its border fortifications by Frontex (European Border and Coast Guard Agency of EU Member States and Schengen-associated countries) behaves like the RESORT, like an exclusive club.
Further informations on this work: see the text entitled "Gated Landscape. Where are the people? it's so empty here", in the exhibition catalogue, p.172-184
Documentation photos: (c) 2024, RELAX and Kunsthaus Zurich, Franca Candrian
Exhibition view (from left to right) with works by Hermauer / Keller and Uriel Orlow
