With the exhibitions of Irene Kopelman (*1974, Argentina) and Stefan Burger (*1977, Germany) Kunst Halle Sankt Gallen is presenting two different artistic positions which enter a dialogue. Both projects attempt the impossible: to capture complex phenomena and relationships visually.
Stefan Burger’s project «Caressing an Irritable Colon – The Christoph Schifferli Collection of Ephemera and the Georg A. Hermann Archive as Continuous Flow Systems» is also an attempt at the artistic representation of a proliferating system: the Zurich-based artist, who sometimes uses the ritualised organisational forms of presentation and production conditions of art as a sounding board for his installations, photographs and photo-collages, is showing a continuation and further development of the exhibition «Les éphémeras de Schifferli» curated by Giovanni Carmine at Hard Hat in Geneva in 2012. This was a portrait of the ephemera collection of Christoph Schifferli from Zurich, which concentrates on artist posters, exhibition invitations and other incidental printed matter from the art system.
For Kunst Halle Sankt Gallen Burger is expanding the project with a focussed insight into the archive of the German architect Georg A. Hermann, the central component of which is a photographic archive with pictures of the art world and its protagonists that has grown over decades. Burger transforms the systematic approach of the two collectors on the one hand and the meandering abundance of material on the other into a temporary installative condition.
Special thanks to Crees Foundation, The Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship (SARF), Naturalis Biodiversity Center and Albert Groot for the support of Irene Kopelman's project.