Good News For People Who Love Bad News

Feb 13 - Mar 22 2008

Fia Backström, Ida Ekblad, Jens Haaning, Jonathan Horowitz, Scott King, Germaine Kruip, Gianni Motti, David Perry, Vivienne Westwood
Curated by Gianni Jetzer

The Swiss Institute is proud to launch its new project space STUDIO 495. It offers the opportunity of a more spontaneous approach to curating.

The first exhibition brings together an international group of artists. Selected works are hung in pairs and confront each other in a provocative way. Juxtaposition is rooted in the Art Historical practice of formal comparison, which Heinrich Wölfflin popularized in his “Principles of Art History,” 1915. Rather than unveiling a paradigm shift, these contemporary comparisons undermine the reading of political imagery.

A text piece “What is Left to do? What is the Right thing to do?” by Fia Backström, summarizes the leitmotif of the show, the confusion of opposites, “Using the left to be right, chic radicality.” In muddling the delineation of styles, sides, and missions, ultimately, good news collides with bad news.

With kind support of Mondriaan Foundation, Amsterdam and Office for
Contemporary Art, Norway

For additional information please contact jet@swissinstitute.net

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