PROJECT 1049 – Art Viewer

Artists: ÅYR, Vanessa Billy, Raphael Hefti, Paul Kneale, Laura McLean-Ferris, Marlie Mul, Publishing House with Juliette Blightman, Sophie Collins & Rachael Allen, Keren Cytter, Hamishi Farah, Penny Goring, Aurelia Guo, E. Jane, Maggie Lee, Ken Okiishi, Tabita Rezaire, Diamond Stingily, Haroon Mirza, Paul Pieroni & Holly White, Laure Prouvost, Megan Rooney, Dan Solbach with Bruno Aeberli, Sarah Colman, Isaac Contreras, Brieg Huon, Aurélien Martin, Julia Tcharfas, Richard Wentworth

Exhibition title: PROJECT 1049

Curated by: Raphael Hefti and Paul Kneale

Venue: various locations in The Gstaad region, Bernese alps, Switzerland

Date: July 27 – August 21, 2016

Photography: Marc Asekame, all images copyright and courtesy of the artists and PROJECT 1049

An artist-led exhibition invading the Swiss mountains with experimental new works specially commissioned for the project

PROJECT 1049 is a large-scale, site-specific exhibition that takes as its starting point the notion of the «Project Space» as an incubator where anything is possible: artists, curators and writers come together to develop their ideas and practices within a progressive, non-traditional atmosphere in which openness and experimentation are paramount.

Initiated by Swiss artist Raphael Hefti, at the invitation of LUMA Foundation, PROJECT 1049 is a curatorial collaboration between Hefti and Canadian artist, Paul Kneale, who have a history of working together on projects that encourage collaborative networks of production and dissemination, and which push the boundaries and parameters of making and exhibiting work. Participants involved have been invited to respond to Gstaad and the Saanenland as host venue, and PROJECT 1049 as artist-organized—acknowledging the spirit of both core elements to make new and critically relevant work that is engaged in the immediate context, both ideologically and geographically.

Works span a wide variety of output in both form and content, and will range across the region to engage visitors in unexpected moments of engagement and reflection. In keeping with the notion of the «Project Space», artists involved have taken as central the concern to think outside of the commonplace and orthodox, in order to produce works of surprising originality that are nonetheless rooted in an investigation of an immediate place and its surrounding atmosphere, materials, and affinities — an investment in collaboration with both peers and environment in proximity.

The opening weekend (29-31 July 2016) hosts the world premiere of a film by curator Paul Pieroni, in collaboration with artist Holly White, which takes as its starting point Timothy Leary’s book, The Intelligence Agents—a chronicle of the author’s sojourn in nearby Crans-Montana, where he attempted to gain asylum while on the run from the US Government.

Sculptural work plays a critical role within PROJECT 1049—to radically different and challenging ends in each case. «Publishing House», an experimental poetry imprint, has commissioned a series of contemporary poets to participate in a poetry anthology that sees each poem printed as a three-dimensional object—each of which will be sited around Gstaad: a rhizomatic web of «texts» to be navigated by a smart phone app.

Artist Paul Kneale has also engaged with the notion of the commissioned object: with a focus on the public sculptures of Gstaad, he asked art writers to produce critiques of particular in situ works, which were then used—via an online platform—to commission new illustrations based on these descriptions. The resultant drawings have been turned back into physical objects, a series of 3D modelled sculptures made of polystyrene and resin, which will be installed near their original versions: a mise-en-abîme of aesthetic interpretation repeated back to itself across genre and discipline.

Megan Rooney has written a text-based performance that takes as its inspiration the «Peak Walk by Tissot» suspension bridge on the «Glacier 3000», where the artist and a troupe of dancers will carry out the piece. Issues of gravity, height, horizons, distance, and suspension play out across the language and temporality, both physical and literal, of the piece.

Other participants involved include: ÅYR, Vanessa Billy, Raphael Hefti, Laura Mclean-Ferris, Haroon Mirza, Marlie Mul, Laure Prouvost, Dan Solbach, Julia Tcharfas, Ben Vickers, and Richard Wentworth.

The opening of PROJECT 1049 takes place across 29–31 July 2016, and will involve live performances at high altitude, a movie premiere, a curators’ tour, artists panel discussion, music, food, and an opening party.

The exhibition will continue in and around Gstaad until 21 August 2016.