PETER FISCHLI & DAVID WEISS
“EQUILIBRES”
May 15 – July 28, 2007
Natürliche Grazie, 1984/86
C-Print, 40 x 30 cm
© Peter Fischli & David Weiss
Monika Sprüth and Philomene Magers are pleased to present the photographic series EQUILIBRES by Peter Fischli and David Weiss at their Munich Gallery.
In their work, the artists employ a wide variety of artistic means of expression, ranging from film, photography and artists’ books to sculptures and multimedia installations. They adapt everyday objects and situations which they place – not without humour or irony – in an artistic context, thus raising philosophical and theoretical questions regarding the explanation of the world.
The photographs EQUILIBRES were created in the years 1984 and 1986. It is a series of 82 black-and-white and colour photographs showing assemblages of everyday objects. The attention is drawn to an dizzying construction, with gravity seemingly working in reverse, creating a state of suspension which cancels the weight and the value of the individual components. This is also summarized in the subheading of the EQUILIBRES of Peter Fischli and David Weiss: „Am schönsten ist das Gleichgewicht, kurz bevor’s zusammenbricht.“ („Balance is most beautiful just before it collapses.“)
Precarious and often on the verge of collapse, the photographs with their suggestive titles are reminiscent of thought experiments and evoke the familiar Surrealist image of the „chance encounter of a sewing machine and an umbrella on a dissection table“ (Lautréamont). The titles alternately function as accurate summaries of the sculptural situation, as in the case of the SCHLUMMERSCHLINGE (SLUMBER SNARE) or as anecdotic descriptions.
In their new EQUILIBRES artists’ book, Peter Fischli and David Weiss have often assigned different titles to one and the same motif.
A smaller selection of the EQUILIBRES was presented for the first time in 1985 in the exhibition STILLER NACHMITTAG (QUIET AFTERNOON) at Monika Sprüth Gallery, Cologne, at the Kunsthalle Basel and at the Groningen Museum, accompanied by the artists’ book of the same title.
Peter Fischli (b. 1952) and David Weiss (b. 1946) live and work in Zurich. They became internationally known through their film DER LAUF DER DINGE (THE WAY THINGS GO) which was shown at the DOCUMENTA in Kassel in 1987. Peter Fischli and David Weiss have represented Switzerland in numerous international exhibitions such as the Venice Biennale and were awarded the Golden Lion in 2003.
Their large retrospective FLOWERS & QUESTIONS was first shown at the Tate Modern in London in Autumn 2006 and travelled afterwards to the Musée d‘Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, the Kunsthalle Zürich and the Deichtorhallen Hamburg.
For further information or visual material please contact Julia Weiß.
www.spruethmagers.com