Beat Zoderer

With his many-facetted works, which seek to go beyond the con­straints of the clas­si­cal vocab­u­lary of art forms, Beat Zoderer is one of the Swiss artists that have found inter­na­tional recog­ni­tion. His works have been shown all over the world in renowned venues. In his objects, wall pieces, instal­la­tions and sculp­tures, he the­ma­tizes a non­cha­lant com­bi­na­tion of “high” and “low”. The past is reflected upon with­out sen­ti­men­tal­iz­ing, while the tra­di­tional canons of art are newly inter­preted in a sub­ver­sive and refresh­ing man­ner. Thus he decon­structs and vitalises con­crete and con­struc­tive art by sub­tly lever­ag­ing out its rig­or­ous­ness, its ratio­nal­ity and its perfectionism. On the premises of the von Bartha Garage Beat Zoderer (born in Zurich in 1955, resid­ing and work­ing in Wet­tin­gen) is show­ing new works, among them a spec­tac­u­lar instal­la­tion made out of plex­i­glas balls. Addi­tion­ally, he is pre­s­en­ing two groups of works that oscil­late between the poles of inten­tion and coin­ci­dence and in the het­ero­gene­ity of their for­mal solu­tions empha­sise the poetry of the mate­r­ial used. Beat Zoderer explores the pos­si­bil­i­ties of the mate­r­ial, pos­ing for­mal ques­tions that lead to inge­nious and ironic visual expe­ri­ences. It is strik­ing how he mate­ri­alises his ideas with authen­tic and direct ges­tures and how he indulges in his enthu­si­asm for lumi­nous colours – often in ready-made mate­r­ial from a depart­ment store – or for the diverse char­ac­ter­is­tics of the mate­r­ial. Thus, his works do not seek to decline a strict set of art forms com­pletely – which would call to mind the objec­tiv­ity and per­fec­tion­ism of min­i­mal­ism – but attempt instead to show how and out of what they have orig­i­nated. Mak­ing the con­struc­tion vis­i­ble, its imper­fec­tion, is an essen­tial char­ac­ter­is­tic of Zoderer’s 30-year work phi­los­o­phy. Small sur­face irreg­u­lar­i­ties or so-called “sur­prises” are part of the cre­ativeen­tion process and an inte­gral part of a work – a sub­jec­tiv­ity that rel­a­tivises the puris­tic core and allows an endear­ing look at the mate­r­ial, infus­ing it with a kind of soul.