{"id":5997,"date":"2018-05-29T10:53:56","date_gmt":"2018-05-29T10:53:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/croatian-photography.com\/?p=5997"},"modified":"2018-10-02T09:04:42","modified_gmt":"2018-10-02T09:04:42","slug":"swiss-artist-esther-mathis-at-the-spot-gallery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/croatian-photography.com\/en\/swiss-artist-esther-mathis-at-the-spot-gallery\/","title":{"rendered":"Swiss artist Esther Mathis at the Spot Gallery"},"content":{"rendered":"

Spot Gallery and Office for Photography announce the opening of an exhibition\u00a0Museum Light<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong>by Swiss\u00a0artist Esther\u00a0Mathis.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The exhibition opening and talk with artist and curator Petra Tomljanovi\u0107<\/strong> will be held on Monday, 4th June\u00a0at 7 pm<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

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\"Mathis_Museum<\/a>

Esther Mathis: Museum Light (Spring), Kunstmuseum Winterthur<\/p><\/div>\n

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Shells, membranes and safeguards.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Light with zero calories, infrastructures beyond optimization and Esther Mathis. In many museums there are hidden rooms designed to filter light, and create perfect conditions for something far beyond optimal, common, or necessary \u2013 Art. Because art is more than natural and its environment requires well-tempered unnaturalness. This is something that light spaces masterfully allow. Intricate infrastructure is compassionate towards artworks, its functionality is declaring: I feel you, therefore I feel for you. <\/em>This is the gateway to luxurious experience.<\/p>\n

We are very empathic towards art, yet we don’t like artificiality. In a labyrinthine-like floor plan of light spaces, the artificiality of conditions leaves a lasting impression. The hissing sound of metallic blinds, lowered to shield the sun and raised to counteract the shadows of clouds \u2013 the whistling scintillation of a breeze through slatted openings as temperatures rise and fall \u2013 the sound of light. Pure meditation.<\/p>\n

Museum light spaces emit a metaphor of sensitivity. Harsh, unrelenting weather reigns outside, always changing and marking time. Inside is the dream space of calm artwork, where the necessary abstraction is needed for a new language to unfold. Light spaces serve as gowns, envelopes, and ever-softer membranes in order to achieve the ever-finer textures, to smoothen plaster, to refine paper or liquid paint. The embracing shell transforms the world into coloured pictures, into paintings hanging on walls, the vividness of the landscape into tapestry, movement into abstract compositions. Its function is to replace the sun with soft light and allow the world to live with symbolic icons. Unnoticeable, distant, protective \u2013 holding the outside world at bay.<\/p>\n

This is the infrastructure of opulence. It is the infrastructure that cherishes luxury, yet understands abundance as a collective need and responsibility. Art in museum collections is an idol and a fantasy, a sumptuous display of objects that are supposed to move us, make us think differently, play with concepts or catapult us into transcendence.<\/p>\n

Museums are decadent beings, reliant on public and private donors that spend copious amounts of energy, time and money in protection of artworks which are radical, precious, unique and always waiting to be discovered anew. They demonstrate the desire of human culture to go beyond the common, to break the boundaries, enter into total luxury, transcending the “naturalized” distinction between the necessary and unnecessary. They are places where gods live, places where the infinite manifests itself, where the uncompromising is overwhelmingly welcomed. This is how a museum culture gets created, a safeguard to our minds.<\/p>\n

For the last four years,<\/em> E<\/em>sther has photographed and experienced the lightspaces of Aargauer Kunsthaus, Kirchner Museum, Kunsthaus Bregenz, Kunsthaus Glarus, Kunsthaus Z\u00fcrich, Kunstmuseum Winterthur, Kunstverein Konstanz, Macao Milano, Museum Folkwang, Hamburger Bahnhof, Palazzo Edison, Ritter Museum, and Kunsthalle Tallinn.<\/em><\/p>\n

(text by Petra Tomljanovi\u0107<\/strong>)<\/p>\n

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The exhibition will remain open\u00a0<\/strong>until\u00a06th July 2018<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

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\u2013<\/p>\n

Esther Mathis<\/strong> (*08.01.1985) lives and works in Z\u00fcrich. She studied Photography at IED in Milan where she was awarded a scholarship for the SVA in New York. She completed her studies in 2015 with a Masters in Fine Arts from the ZHdK in Z\u00fcrich. In 2014 she received the annual artist prize from the city of Winterthur.\u2028 Her work has been exhibited both locally and internationally. The group exhibitions include Pr\u00e4parat Bergsturz<\/em>\u00a0at the Chur Art Museum alongside Roman Signer and Robert Smithson, Doings & kNOTs<\/em>\u00a0at the Tallinn Arthall alongside DO IT (Hans Ulrich Obrist & ICI), George Steinmann and Alex Cecchetti. Her work was also part of the Shenzhen Photo Biennale in October 2016. In June 2017, she developed a site-specific solo-exhibition for the Kunsthalle Arbon.<\/p>\n

\u2013<\/p>\n

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The exhibition\u00a0Museum Light<\/em>\u00a0is realized by\u00a0Office for Photography<\/strong>\u00a0(Zagreb) and\u00a0Kulturfolger<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>(Z\u00fcrich).<\/p>\n

The exhibition is supported by\u00a0Zagreb City Office for Culture, Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Croatia, Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia and Kultura Nova Foundation<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

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\u2013<\/p>\n

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Opening hours of Spot Gallery<\/p>\n

Mon \u2013 Fri \/ 4 \u2013 8 pm
\nOr by appointment<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Spot Gallery and Office for Photography announce the opening of an exhibition\u00a0Museum Light\u00a0by Swiss\u00a0artist Esther\u00a0Mathis. The exhibition opening and talk with artist and curator Petra Tomljanovi\u0107 will be held on…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":5993,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-5997","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-spot-gallery"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/croatian-photography.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5997","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/croatian-photography.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/croatian-photography.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/croatian-photography.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/croatian-photography.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5997"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/croatian-photography.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5997\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/croatian-photography.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5993"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/croatian-photography.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5997"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/croatian-photography.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5997"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/croatian-photography.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5997"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}