from the series das (to Inger Christensen), 2008-2009

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from the series das (to Inger Christensen), 2008-2009

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all drawings untitled, 2012

 

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Rotes Zimmer, 2011–2012

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Rotes Zimmer, 2011–2012

from the series das (to Inger Christensen), 2008-2009

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from the series das (to Inger Christensen), 2008-2009

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from the series das (to Inger Christensen), 2008-2009

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from the series das (to Inger Christensen), 2008-2009

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Biennale di Venezia 2009 ‘das (to Inger Christensen)’ 33 parts, drawings on paper and photographs. Photo : ANNETTE FISCHER/CHRISTOPH KERN

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portrait of SILVIA BÄCHLI at Biennale di Venezia 2009
Photo : ANNETTE FISCHER/CHRISTOPH KERN

all drawings courtesy of the artist

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Swiss artist SILVIA BÄCHLI has developed her drawing practice over the course of three decades, working on sheets of white paper, of different sizes, qualities and tones, and using Indian ink, charcoal, gouache or pastels.

Using the body and its movements as a starting point, her work spreads into everything that can be considered part of the realm of feeling. In this way she presents a reality made up of fragments and impressions. The result is not just painterly moments; the drawings often seem to capture, as if in film stills, a cinematic look way of looking at bodies and things or their details, at landscapes, gestures, structures, and processes. Story telling without an actual beginning or end, just a visualization of a moment captured in time.

The everyday and normal seem to constantly bewilder me, seem to keep posing new questions: what do fingers look like? (Study closely.) What do feet look like under a chair? (Imagine something without seeing it.) The best drawings are when I can put myself physically into my perception, when I can feel myself into it. What places are there that can’t be filled out? How does the back feel? (Looking from within.) What did I walk past yesterday? (Recalling a route, walking and standing still.) What do diffuse thoughts look like? (Groping through a fog.) What does one remember and where are the white spots? Where does virgin soil begin? What can be depicted when avoiding sensationalism? What remains without TV reality, summit conferences and a woman with a heart? What do the majority of minutes consist of? My drawings are beams of light cast onto careless, insignificant motions, fusions of objects, overpaintings of once commenced and since abandoned figurations, noises, notions; continents between what is closest by. Drawing is experimenting, groping one’s way and playing. My work is like speaking out loud. – SILVIA BÄCHLI in conversation with HANS RUDOLF REUST, 2007

In the year of 2009 BÄCHLI was representing Switzerland at the Biennale di Venezia. Her installation ‘das‘ (that) consisting of 33 drawings and photographs in the Swiss pavilion was an homage to the Danish writer Inger Christensen. And good news: far apart – close together, her last solo exhibition is currently on view at the Kunstmuseum Sankt Gallen through May 13, 2012.