From Swiss Room (1999) to the Blow-Up Regime (2020)

On Domination, Trauma and Collaboration

Drawing is a way for me and, by extension, the viewer to understand reality in all its subjective, political and symbolic complexity. It also allows me to show how the present is shaded by what has gone before – i.e. by history and memory – and by shifting power structures. I think of my drawings as the eclectic remains of a lost primitive scene and my work as the site of an archaeological dig, shrouded in fog, where each drawing has the potential to flick a switch in the viewer’s mind and activate their own memories of the scene depicted.

With this lecture, I present an overview of my work and show its development via the topics of domination, trauma and collaboration. I will also show some source material and explain the artistic process in a selection of my works.

Marc Bauer studied at the École Supérieure d’Arts Visuels Genève (now known as HEAD) in Geneva and at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten in Amsterdam. He is also a tenured lecturer at the Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK).

He has presented his works at numerous solo exhibitions, both in Switzerland and abroad. Most notably, he has done so at the Berlinische Galerie in Berlin (2020); the Istituto Svizzero in Milan (2020); the Drawing Room in London (2019); the Museum Folkwang in Essen (2014) and at the Centre Culturel Suisse in Paris (2013), as well as at the Kunstmuseum St. Gallen (2011) and at MAMCO in Geneva (2010). He is also slated to have works exhibited at Frac Auvergne in 2021, just as he did previously in 2010 and 2014. Bauer has also participated in noteworthy group exhibitions at the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao (2020); the Migros Museum, Zurich (2019); the Kunsthaus Zurich (2019); the Biennale of Sydney (2018); the S.M.A.K. in Ghent (2015); the Albertina Museum in Vienna (2015) and at the Liverpool Biennial (2014). Awarded the Swiss Art Award in 2001, 2005 and 2006, he also won the 2020 Meret Oppenheim Prize / Swiss Grand Award for Art and the 2020 GASAG Kunstpreis, the latter of which resulting in a solo exhibition of his works at the Berlinische Galerie in Berlin.

Bauer is represented by the Peter Kilchmann Galerie in Zurich and the Keteleer Gallery in Antwerp.

www.marcbauer.net

An event organised by: TransArts – Transdisciplinary Art transarts@uni-ak.ac.at www.transarts.at