Aggregating Matter: Of Dandelions and Architectures : Nest

Installation view "Aggregating Matter: Of Dandelions and Architectures", with works by Beate Kuhn, Marta Riniker-Radich, and Paulo Wirz, NEST, Zurich University of the Arts, 2022. Courtesy the artists and Ursula Hauser Collection, Switzerland. Photo: Lorène Mohn

Beate Kuhn, Mammon, 1967, glazed stoneware, 25.4 x 30 x 33 cm, and Beate Kuhn, Zweige, 2000, glazed stoneware, 20.3 x 43.2 x 40.7 cm. Courtesy Ursula Hauser Collection, Switzerland. Photo: Jasmine Gregory

Paulo Wirz, Quando a Hora Dobra [When the hour doubles], 2017, charred wood, flowers, and black pigmented paraffin wax, 16 x 14 x 6 cm. Courtesy the artist. Photo: Jasmine Gregory

Paulo Wirz, Leito Largo [Strange riverbed], 2021, fineliner and red pastel oil, 5 parts, each: 21 x 10 x 3 cm. Courtesy the artist. Photo: Lorène Mohn

Marta Riniker-Radich, Untitled, 2010, colored pencil and pencil on paper, 21 x 29.7 cm. Private Collection (top left). Marta Riniker-Radich, Lattementa, 2009, and Untitled, 2010, colored pencil and pencil on paper, both: 21 x 29.7 cm (top right and bottom). Courtesy the artist. Photo: Lorène Mohn

Marta Riniker-Radich, Untitled, 2012, Colored pencil and pencil on paper 29.7 x 21 cm. Courtesy the artist Galerie Francesca Pia; Leito Largo [Strange riverbed], 2021, fineliner and red pastel oil, 5 parts, each: 21 x 10 x 3 cm. Courtesy the artist. Photo: Lorène Mohn

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Aggregating Matter: Of Dandelions and Architectures

04.03.2022 – 25.03.2022

With “Aggregating Matter: Of Dandelions and Architectures,” we open the third exhibition in cooperation with the Ursula Hauser Collection at NEST. Starting from ceramics by the German artist Beate Kuhn (1927-2015), the exhibition traces forms of the grown and designed environment. Moreover, it shines a spotlight on an unjustly less prominent figure in art history, placing her works in dialogue with contemporary works by Marta Riniker-Radich (b. 1982, lives in Frankfurt a. M. and Zurich) and Paulo Wirz (b. 1990, lives in Geneva and Zurich), members of the Bachelor Fine Arts team.

“Aggregates” or even aggregate states also denote energy potentials, the physical change between liquid, solid, gaseous. In a figurative sense, transitional possibilities and threshold states reside in matter, material, and materialities in the works assembled in this exhibition. They constitute themselves from purposefully collected and condensed elements as works of art. These are specific cultural elements or vegetal and inanimate natural forms. The resulting structures oscillate between the insect-inhabited lightness of a dandelion head and the sedateness of a post-apocalyptic bunker situation. The enclosures proposed by the works – sometimes inviting, even sheltering, sometimes alienating – reveal different facets and ideas of (organic) architecture. On the one hand, they expose the hidden geometry of nature; on the other hand, they subvert and overcome calculable-rational notions of building and space. Curated by Elsa Himmer and Gabrielle Schaad.

“Aggregating Matter: Of Dandelions and Architectures“
featuring works by Beate Kuhn, Marta Riniker-Radich, and Paulo Wirz

March 04–25, 2022

Opening: Friday, March 04, 2022, 6–8pm
Opening hours: Fridays 5–8pm
Special opening hours on the occasion of the Zurich Art Weekend:
Saturday, March 05, 2022 and Sunday, March 06, 2022 from 12-6pm

Public guided tour: Sunday, March 06, 2022 at 3pm

The pandemic protection guidelines of the FOPH apply.