Venues
Kunsthalle Zürich
Courtesy of the artist and Galeria Miguel Nabinho, Lisboa
I move just enough so no one takes me for dead before my time comes.
(Anonymous text found by Ana Jotta in the streets of Lisbon)
The exhibition is curated by Miguel Wandschneider.
Löwenbräukunst
Limmatstrasse 270
Courtesy of the Estate of David Armstrong
David Armstrong (1954–2014) was an American photographer based in New York. Associated with the Boston School, his work has been influential in photography, art and fashion. He was celebrated for his tender and unabashed portraits of the people closest to him. Over four decades and in a time of societal turmoil, Armstrong generated both a style-defining portrait of his subculture and a deeply moving panorama of beauty, queerness and intimacy. This first overview of Armstrong’s oeuvre in Europe will include numerous unpublished photographs.
Löwenbräukunst
Limmatstrasse 270
Image: Cedric Mussano
u is part artist, part vessel—a transferable personal alias, and a social interaction. u’s project spaces (2018–ongoing) are small boxes made of clear packing tape that act as a medium for collaborations with other artists and curators. u initiates the process by sending an empty project space to selected practitioners as an invitation to join an artistic dialogue, a new relationship and often a finished artwork. Thus u also performs the role of a curator by providing each participant carte blanche within an exhibition space that is small, but very flexible. As a result, the individual collaborators are foregrounded, while the initiator takes a backseat behind the easily overlooked lowercase letter ‘u’ (shorthand for the English word ‘you’). This collaborative way of thinking and working deliberately resists elaborate, commercial production mechanisms and allows for collaborations far beyond national borders. The heart of the project is to expand the concept of curating to include the interests of artists and to promote artistic exchange.
For Backrooms, new collaborations have been initiated with the artists mentioned above. The exhibition unfolds in two parts: first, the plain project spaces will be exhibited before being sent to the participants, and in the second part, the outcomes of the collaborations will be showcased.
Kunsthalle Zürich curator Otto Bonnen is present in the space to introduce the project.
The exhibition is located in the backrooms, Kunsthalle Zürich basement.
Löwenbräukunst
Limmatstrasse 270
Kunsthalle Zürich presents a solo exhibition by Portuguese artist Ana Jotta, curated by Miguel Wandschneider.
Our second presentation is of works by David Armstrong (1954–2014), an American photographer based in New York. Associated with the Boston School, his work has been influential in photography, art and fashion. He was celebrated for his tender and unabashed portraits of the people closest to him. Over four decades and in a time of societal turmoil, Armstrong generated both a style-defining portrait of his subculture and a deeply moving panorama of beauty, queerness and intimacy. This first overview of Armstrong's oeuvre in Europe will include numerous unpublished photographs.
American choreographer TRAJAL HARRELL (*in Douglas, Georgia) gained global recognition with his series of works ‘Twenty Looks or Paris is Burning at the Judson Church’ and is now a regular guest on the international dance and visual arts circuit. The unique style of Trajal Harrell’s works is a result not just of the unusual way in which he combines dance languages that might seem very distant from each other, such as voguing, postmodern dance and butoh, but also and above all of the fragility and humour that pervade all his work. His pieces are always an homage to the people standing on stage. He clothes them in carefully selected fabrics, draws major inspiration from developments in haute couture, and his highly personal style of movement turns his performers into unusual and autonomous beings. He performs in most of his pieces himself. Since 2019 Trajal Harrell has been in-house director at Schauspielhaus Zürich, where he directs the Schauspielhaus Zürich Dance Ensemble.
SEBASTIAN JESSBERGER is Professor for Neurosciences and Director of the Brain Research Institute. He studied Medicine in Hamburg, Germany and carried out his medical thesis at the Center for Molecular Neurobiology (ZMNH) in Hamburg. In 2002 he started a joint residency in the laboratory of Gerd Kempermann at the Max Delbruck Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) and the Dept. of Neurology of the Charité University Hospital in Berlin. As a postdoctoral fellow (2004-2007) in the laboratory of Fred H. Gage at the Salk Institute he continued to work on neural stem cell biology and neurogenesis in the adult brain. From 2007 to 2012 he was Assistant Professor at the ETH Zurich and joined the Brain Research Institute in August 2012. He received various prizes (e.g., Max Cloëtta Foundation award 2023, Robert Bing prize 2016, Friedrich Götz prize 2013) and was awarded to join the EMBO Young Investigator program in 2012. He obtained several ERC/SNSF replacement grants.
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