12 May 2014

Dzama. Rebetez. U5 at Kunstmuseum Thun, Switzerland

Parallel to the first institutional solo exhibition Hollow Laughter by the renowned Canadian artist Marcel Dzama in Switzerland, the young Swiss artist positions Augustin Rebetez and the collective U5 are represented with smaller solo shows – when your dreams trickle down your umbrella, the weather is nice and Parasite.

The illustrations by Albrecht Dürer of the medieval vers poem Das Narrenschiff (Ship of Fools) (1494) by Sebastian Brant extend the exhibitions as an art historical insert. The artists represented at the exhibitions deal in depth with today's world images and genre pictures and draw mostly from the mundane and banal. In this way they increase awareness of the excesses of society. Their sometimes seemingly archaic works often bear witness to the vulnerability and the discomfort that hide behind the fragile interpersonal situations, and translate them into impressive realms of experience.

At first glance, the imageries of Dzama seem harmless, almost innocent. But behind this facade a grotesque and sometimes cruel universe opens up: masked, uniformed and armed, dancing, loving, or agonising characters are the protagonists of his imagery. The mystery of the night and the boundaries between reality and fiction are frequent themes in Rebetez's work. The jarring works by U5 move between nature andartifice, utopia and myth.