Artefakte (Artifacts)

The Bob Gysin Gallery is pleased to host a solo exhibition by Georg Aerni during the fair “Kunst Zürich 10”, where his project “Artefakte” (Artefacts) will be on display at the stand C5.

The artist Georg Aerni has become famous through his photographic series depicting big cities, such as Paris, Barcelona, Hong Kong and Tokyo. After his work on the themes: zoological gardens (Territorien, 2005) and the Alps (Holozän, 2006-08) he is now working again on landscape themes in his series Artefakte.

Since 2006 Georg Aerni has been investigating human interventions on nature: landfills, extractions, wood-, concrete-, stone constructions. The artist focuses both on those interventions that are almost self-evidently integrated into their surrounding as a result of materiality or surface and on those which are not further questioned, since their functions are generally known.

In the same way as the artist sees houses and cities, he sees the landscape as a sign space, which, through the lack of human inhabitancy, tells a lot about the history of social and cultural living conditions.

Through the removal of the civilization traces from their contexts as well as their countertransference in the dense hanging of the exhibition, Georg Aerni creates a sense of alienation and uncertainty. Often goal and purpose seem to be puzzling. Georg Aerni’s pictures soberly document this feelings and also give a sense for the strangeness of those situations.

Sites & Signs
Fotografien von Georg Aerni / Photographs by Georg Aerni

Herausgegeben von Nadine Olonetzky. Mit Texten von Stephan Berg, Moritz Küng und Nadine Olonetzky. Gebunden, 272 Seiten, ca. 170 farbige und 40 schwarzweisse Abbildungen mit vollständigem Werkverzeichnis. Texte Deutsch und Englisch. ISBN: 978-3-85881-320-6.

Biography Georg Aerni