Contributors

The selection of our participants was primarily guided by the attempt to obtain a variety of perspectives. This lead to the invitation of people from different fields (arts, theory, politics) and our decision of an open project structure. Almost all participants are familiar with the city of Zurich. Some of them have already organized interventions or are skilled in the theoretical debate on the nature of the public sphere.

The following list includes all artists and theoreticians involved in the project:

Marina Belobrovaja, artist

!Mediengruppe Bitnik, artists collective

Karin Frei Bernasconi, executive “Kunst und Bau” (bureau of structural engineering in Zurich), curator and architect; guest: Victorine Müller, artist

eggerschlatter, artists collective

Laura Kalauz, actress; guest: Diana Rojas-Feile, actress

San Keller, artist; guests: participants of the walk

Daniel Knorr, artist

Knowbotik Research, artists collective

Kunsthaus Aussersihl, artists collective

Christian Ratti, artist; guest: Simon Gaus, protector of amphibians

Adrien Tirtiaux, artist

Stefan Wagner, curator; guest: Georg Keller, artist

Marina Belobrovaja was born in Kiev (USSR) in 1976. After emigrating to Israel and later Germany, she was a student of Visual Arts (1998-2004) and Art Education (2004-2007) at Berlin University of the Arts and at Zurich University of the Arts. Concerned with various visual media she finally concentrated on Performance Art. She works in the border zone between social reality and artistic praxis. Her performances are addressing political and social phenomena in a provocative as well as playful manner. Central to her latest projects are conflicts and questions circling around employment and the law. Besides exhibiting nationally and internationally, she is also working in the field of Art Education. She lives in Zurich. http://marinabelobrovaja.ch/

!Mediengruppe Bitnik are Carmen Weisskopf and Domagoj Smoljo. Not just since their critically acclaimed work „Opera Calling“ (2007) do they belong to those voices in the young Swiss art scene working with electronic media that are to be reckoned with. Their process oriented praxis links the infiltration of everyday life with media and technologies and its interrelation to social questions. A crucial point in their artistic practice is the tactic of computer hacking, which is defined as a “clever solution for an interesting problem”, respectively as “usage of a system in a way it was not intended”. In “Opera Calling”, hidden bugs were placed inside Zurich’s opera building and used in operation “Arias for Everyone”, randomly calling households and transmitting the plays live. The opening of the opera’s system with a hack raised questions about the proprietary rights of culture. Since summer 2008 !Mediengruppe Bitnik has conducted dérives thematizing  hidden video signals in the urban spaces of Zurich, Basel, St. Gallen, Bern, London, Rotterdam and Sao Paulo under the name “CCTV- A Trail of Images“. www.bitnik.org

Karin Frei Bernasconi (*1965) is executive “Kunst und Bau” with the bureau of structural engineering in Zurich, curator, and architect. 1986-1992: study of Architecture at ETH Zurich and Lausanne, 1996-1998: Postgraduate Studies at the Institute of Art History at the University of Zurich, 2006-2008: masters degree in Curating at the Zurich University of the Arts. 1999-2001: teaching and research assistant at ETH Zurich, Faculty of Architecture, Prof. Dr. Marc Angélil. Several awards for the designing of public places. For the last 10 years: intensive examination of art and architecture as areas of conflict and working for exhibitions including: exhibition scenography Max Beckmann and Paris at Kunsthaus Zürich (1998); co-curator of the exhibition “Stadt-Einsichten” at Helmhaus Zürich (1999); co-curator of the exhibition “Hybride Zonen” and co-editor of the publication “Hybrid Zones, Art, and Architecture in Basel and Zurich” (2003). Supervision of the project LIVE-ART, performances, and actions. Public art project for the school Im Birch Zurich (2004), curatorial assistance of the exhibition Performance in Progress at Kunsthaus Uri (2006), co-curator of the exhibition Ready Trade Trailer, Worpswede, Bremen, Kassel, Zurich (2007), curator and project director of the art-and-construction-project „NESTER“ for the city hospital Triemli Zurich (Realization 2010-2020).

The artists collective eggerschlatter consists of Benjamin Egger (*1981) and Sabine Schlatter (*1977). In their artistic praxis, the duo concerns itself with questions of spatial and social delineation and with aspects of expansion and reproduction of all kind. eggerschlatter are treating society and its systems as a swarm of singular particles. Even if this mass is behaving arbitrarily, its individual elements are in a predefined relationship with one another. What forces are initiating these processes and keeping them going? Within their work, both artists analyze and discuss those seemingly uncontrollable dynamics characteristic for communities taking possession of new regions and newly determining them. Projects of eggerschlatter have, amongst others, been shown at Stadtgalerie Loge in Bern, Shedhalle, Helmhaus, and Tanzhaus in Zurich. Presently, they are artists-in-residence at Binz39. http://eggerschlatter.com

Laura Kalauz (*1975 in Buenos Aires, Argentina) studied Dance and Sciences of Social Communication at the University of Buenos Aires. She graduated 2003 as Dance Maker at the Hogeschool voor de Kunsten – Dansacademie Arnhem, Netherlands. Since then she has been living in Zurich where she is working as independent choreographer. Laura Kalauz’ work raises questions concerning routines and patterns of contemporary living. Her interest lies on the reassessment of assumptions, which are generally taken for granted, and which not only govern social behavior but also influence the way we communicate. She has collaborated with the artists Martin Schick, Krööt Juurak and Simone Aughterlony. At the Theaterhaus Gessnerallee in Zurich she directed the play “Multiverse” (2006) and the project “Excuse me please could you choreograph me” (2007). Lastly, Laura Kalauz had been working with Martin Schick on a project called “TITLE” that was premiered at the 30th edition of the Theater Spektakel Zurich, receiving the ZKB grant award.

Georg Keller (*1981) graduated in 2008 in Visual Arts at the Zurich University of the Arts. While studying, he founded the company “Georg Keller Enterprises – A Brand Like A Friend” whose business activities include the formation of numerous bogus companies. In his artistic work, he is predominantly interested in the logics of our world of consumer goods and their orchestration. His first theatrical endeavors lead to the staging of his first play entitled “The Company” at Rote Fabrik Zurich in 2009. In the same year, an intervention of his, entitled „The Branch. Georg Keller Bank (GKB)“ was performed amongst other projects within the context of the exhibition “Shifting Identities“ of the Kunsthaus Zurich in Vilnius.

San Keller (*1971 Bern) has made a name for himself on a national and international basis with his participatory-ephemeral performances and his poetic-comical objects. His first appearances were in the Nineties: he was sleeping, for instance, on the floor during the Swiss television’s transmission of the daily news. Later he also appeared abroad, for example at the Sharjah Biennale in 2005, where he asked Dr. Shaikh Sultan Bin Mohammed El-Qasimi if he should keep his San Star as a signature token for his works, or at the Mathildenhöhe Darmstadt in 2008, obeying the enquiry to participate in the exhibition “Mathilda is Calling” by placing himself in a wheel-barrel, along with Su Young Park, and mutually pushing each other forward. All in all, his performances are encompassing his critical, conceptual, and playful work, approaching the relation of art and life in a very unique way.

Daniel Knorr (*1968 Bucharest) is living and working in Berlin. His work is challenging the materiality of art and transgressing all orders between theatre, performance, and day-to-day life. Knorr is exploring the zones of public, private, natural, and artificial space as well as relations between artists, audience, and subject. He hosted individual exhibitions at the gallery The Project in New York (2002) and at the gallery Serge Ziegler in Zurich (2001) as well as at the Lenbachhaus art forum in Munich (1994). He was representing Rumania at the 51st Biennale in Venice (2005) and realized his latest solo project entitled “Scherben bringen Glück” at the Fridericianum in Kassel (2008-2009). He was also involved in different group exhibitions such as Public Affairs at Kunsthaus Zurich (2002), Love It Or Leave It at the 5th Art Biennale in Montenegro (2004), Berlin Biennale (2008), Manifesta (2008) et al.

Victorine Müller has been in performance art for the last 14 years. Besides having been invited by various art institutions in Switzerland – amongst others: Kunsthalle Bern, Kunstmuseum Basel, Kunstmuseum Solothurn, KKL Lucerne, Centre PasquART Biel, Arsenic Lausanne, Schiffbau and Theater Spektakel Zurich –, she has also staged performances in the last couple of years for the Institute of Contemporary Art London, the Centre Culturel Suisse in Paris, the Museum Belvedere in Vienna and for the Kunsthalle Hamburg and many more. For a few years now, she is using sculptures, objects, and drawings to create an artistic space that exists outside her work as a performer but that is nevertheless interlinked with latter in many ways – with regards to content but also style.

Knowbotic Research, KR (Yvonne Wilhelm, Christian Hübler, Alexander Tuchacek), with headquarters in Zurich, was founded in 1991. The artist collective is experimenting with urbaneness, the construction of knowledge, and the political representation in mediated public space. Its work was presented at distinguished exhibitions, internationally discussed in various publications and at conferences, and has received important awards, such as the Hermann Classen Award for fotography and media art (Cologne), the International Media Award ZKM, the August Seeling Award (Wilhelm Lehmbruck Museum), the Prix Arts Electronica, and the Golden Nica. Knowbotic Research has a professorship at the Arts department at the Zurich University of the Arts since 1998. www.krcf.org

As a society, one of the goals of Kunsthaus Aussersihl is the reshaping of the ministerial building at Helvetiaplatz into a centre for the production, discussion, and presentation of contemporary art und culture. Starting the out-of-office-business, „Der Kunstrundgang“ was the first of meanwhile seven activities. In a one hour art walk through Zurich’s district 4, the promoters and artists (Susanne Hofer, Georgette Maag, and Andreas Niederhauser) have looked at little-known corners and well-known spots in the neighborhood, excavating art treasures. www.kunsthausaussersihl.ch

Christian Ratti (*1974) is interested in strollology and works as a goldsmith and artist. 2005 he graduated as a tower guide in Zurich. Since then he did several guided tours through houses as well as the city, interventions and exhibitions. In the context of his research “From Nail to Nail” he got stuck to to the nail factory in Winterthur as a guide.  www.nagli.ch

After her studies in Bogotá (Columbia), Diana Rojas lived in Paris, attending the Ecole Internationale de Thèâtre Jacques Lecoq and Philippe Gaulier. In Columbia she participated in various productions as actress, dancer, and producer. She further educated herself with Carlo Boso, Lilo Baur, Peter Honegger, Nigel Charnock, Ruth Zaporah, Thomas Lehmen, Koen Augustijnen, and Sten Rudstrom in Paris, Zurich, and Freiburg (Germany). Diana Rojas is living in Zurich since the spring of 2004, working as actress and dancer in the free art scene. In 2007, she produced and played in the play „Y tu? Wer bisch du?“, directed by Fabienne Hadorn. The play was awarded at the 2nd Secondo Theatre Festival at the Stadttheater Olten. She has founded „Choco Loco“, produced by Mandarina&Co., coproduced by Schlachthaustheater Bern and Tuchlaube Aarau in 2009. In the same year, she was engaged in theatrical work for the theatre Falle Basel (director: Roland Suter). Further, she gathered work experience in the field of advertisement and tv production for Swiss National Television with directors Dani Levy and Markus Fischer. Additionally, Diana Rojas is an active theatre educationalist and animator for schools, integration project, and leisure time facilities.

Adrien Tirtiaux (*1980 in Brussels, lives and works in Vienna) deals primarily with the specific characteristics of exhibition spaces and public spaces. His artistic interventions, which oscillate between the severity of conceptual strategies of the 1970s and the lightness of comics, are often the result of a careful examination of a given context in which Tirtiaux is moving and working. In many of his latest works, such as in the Stadtgalerie (Loge) in Bern, or at Galerie Martin Janda in Vienna, Tirtiaux worked to link exhibition rooms to narratives. This spawned “spatial comics”, in which, above all, articulations between the various sequences have been processed. “Entrances, doors, staircases are comparable to the turning of a page in a comic book”, says Tirtiaux. “You leave something behind you and a tension about what comes next is being built up.” Like his spatial interventions, Tirtaux’ actions in the public space are characterized by a strong narrative component and can be regarded as narratives. www.adrientirtiaux.eu

Stefan Wagner (*1973) has finished his studies of art history at the University of Zurich in 2009 with his thesis about ephemeral artwork in the urban space of Zurich. While studying, he accompanied free exhibition projects as assistant curator and was working at Kunst Halle Sankt Gallen betweeen 2006 and 2008. Additionally, he is a contributing writer for various art catalogs and magazines and working as free curator. In 2009 he curated, amongst others, the exhibition „Vanity Fair“ at La Perla, Zurich.