Susan Philipsz
«From the Beginning»

With the young Zurich artist Patrick Graf (*1981) and the Scottish sound artist Susan Philipsz (*1965) we present two exhibitions which could not display a greater contrast. 

Patrick Graf creates new worlds full of fantasy and (black) humour with his colourful, wild and dreamlike/nightmare-like paintings, drawings, texts and objects. On the subject of «Mensch zu Sein» («Being Human») he invites us into a space-filling installation designed for the Kunst Halle, in which we stride through a whole life, from birth to death, in fast motion. Here existence confronts us as a game in which we must collect points to make progress and in which we cannot make all the decisions ourselves. 

Susan Philipsz’s exhibition forms a strong contrast to the visual impact of Graf’s installation. The artist arranges a room in the Kunst Halle on a purely auditory level with the sound work «From the Beginning», in which she spins a web made up of various cultural references (music, literature, film) in order to address the subject of life and death in a subjective way. The sensitive musical work radiates an almost meditative atmosphere in its minimalist presentation.