Christoph Büchel ( Christoph Büchel , 1966 , Basel , Switzerland ) is a modern Swiss artist , known for his conceptual projects and large-scale installations . Hole in Kunsthalle Basel (2005); “Simply Botiful” at Hauser & Wirth Coppermill, London (2006–07); “Dump” in the Palais de Tokyo (Palais de Tokyo), Paris (2008) are some of his recognized large-scale works.
Christoph Büchel | |
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Genre | video , installation , sculpture |
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Content
Creativity
Complex installations by Büchel often encourage viewers to participate in scenarios that are physically and psychologically demanding. The artist explores the precarious relationship between security and intrusion, placing visitors in the conflicting roles of the victim and the voyeurist . In Kunsthalle, Basel Büchel created a room-filling installation entitled "Hole" , which transformed a carefully restored historical part of the building with beautiful proportions into something like an industrial sorting yard and workshop. To get into the installation, visitors must take the elevator from the lobby. The spectators, forced to move through the small rooms, connected by narrowed walkways and steep stairs, could see, among other things, the waiting room, the psychotherapist’s room (“Shrink Room”) and the large tent. These spaces served to represent different states of mind. Shrink Room is a place of spiritual processing. Here the past must be released, the repressed psychological content must be discovered during the analysis. In the next tent, the remains of a blown-up tourist bus are sorted into tables and shelves, resembling a room with evidence of a crime. Sometimes unrecognizable after the explosion, parts of the bus are laid out on the floor or mounted on a steel frame in the shape of a bus. Such a reconstruction is carried out after each crash. Experts spend months researching wreckage. Obsessive care for the details reveals an attempt at total control over incomprehensible and turbulent events that break social order, such as natural disasters and terrorist acts, reflecting the state of social paranoia. These fictitious but very plausible environments — the rooms inside the rooms — are carefully designed so that the institutional framework of the museum and gallery disappears.
Acting as an obsessive set designer, Büchel transformed the space acquired by Hauser & Wirth’s warehouse premises in London’s East End into the “Simply Botiful” environment ( 2006 ). The complex installation, impressive in its scale, resembled a cheap hotel, a camp, a brothel and an import and export shop at the same time. Visitors had to make their way through muddy tunnels and climb stairs to find spaces that show signs of a desire to escape from the terrible reality of imaginary residents, through religious transcendence, pornographic fantasies, and extremist ideology.
In many works Büchel present institutional criticism. His work for the Manifesto, “Invite Yourself” ( 2002 ), consisted of the artist’s place on display at an e-bay online auction site. During the demonstration of “Capital Affair” ( 2002 ), the entire budget of the exhibition was promised to the gallery visitor, who can find the receipt hidden inside the exhibition space. The work “Home” (2009), exhibited in the Hauser & Wirth Gallery, consisted of a set of keys to the artist’s Basel apartment. The buyer of the work was promised a lifelong access to the artist’s apartment, regardless of whether Büchel himself is there or not. Looking like a randomly dropped wallet on the floor, “Wallet” (2009) was his own, with credit cards, identity cards and driver's license, glued to the floor of the artist’s wallet. In the case of the purchase of this product, the wallet should have been unstuck and the credit card will be canceled.
The artist takes the contradictions and inequality of the ideological forces of the dominant society today (global capitalism, unprincipled consumption, religious conservatism, American hegemony) and finds ways to ridicule and demystify these forces through his work.
Education
- University of Art and Design, Basel (1986–1989)
- Cooper Union School of Art, New York (1989–1990)
- Kunstakademie Düsseldorf (1992–1997)
Solo exhibitions
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Notes
- German National Library , Berlin State Library , Bavarian State Library , etc. Record # 122704681 // General Regulatory Control (GND) - 2012—2016.
- ↑ Union List of Artist Names
- ↑ SNAC - 2010.