Helmut Draxler: The Crisis as Form. Project Cultures and the Fate of Critical Discourse

 

The relationship between curator and artist is the most decisive and probably most complex factor in the development of an exhibition project. Notions like trust, accomplishment and responsibility are keystones in the strengthening of this relationship. The curator is profiling his exhibition program, is choosing the artists, is setting up the best possible spatial, financial, physical and other necessary conditions and is responsible for the mediation of the artistic message. In a small series of talks, Rein Wolfs (Artistic Director of Kunsthalle Fridericianum, Kassel/Germany) will invite artists who hold a strong and specific position in the force-field of curating.

 

Stefan Burger (Müllheim/Baden, 1977; lives and works in Zurich) is an artist who is particularly engaged with questions of presentation and perception, with the context of the display, with the less obvious and the seemingly less ostensible. He uses photography and film in an almost sculptural way. Burger seems particularly fascinated by the aesthetic qualities of the rather non-aesthetic. Language in the form of sometimes elaborate, pun-like titles forms an integral part of his artworks.

 

Stefan Burger had a major exhibition in Fotomuseum Winterthur in 2010. Furthermore, he had solo shows at Laura Bartlett Gallery London, Galerie Freymond-Guth Fine Arts Zurich, Kunstbunker Nuremberg, Kunsthaus Baselland, Instituto Svizzero Venice, Kunstraum Walcheturm Zurich and Kunstmuseum Stuttgart, among others. He participated in group exhibitions in Kunsthaus Zurich ('Shifting Identities'), Kunsthaus Glarus ('Performative Attitudes'), Kunsthaus Baselland ('The Art of Failure'), KUMU Art Museum Tallinn and many more.