modulated by Herrmann Germann Conspirators
@ Barbara Seiler & Annex14
Löwenbräukunst, Limmatstrasse 270, 8005 Zurich

Opening, Friday 23 November 2018, 18 h
Exhibition, 24.11.2018 — 09. 02. 2019, Tue–Fri 12–18  h, Sat 11–17 h
Physio Trimming Yoga with Rajesh Ramachandran,
Wednesdays 18 h at High Ceiling (in English)
Artist’s Talk with Warren Neidich, Tuesday 4.12.2018, 18 h

P2P hall:
Jacob Dwyer, Daniel Karrer, Jonas Baumann
Bob Eikelboom, Sara Masüger, Marcel van Eeden
Tenki Hiramatsu, Pavel Büchler Pauline Bastard
Michał Budny, Simon Callery, Ana Roldán

Video corridor with rolling screening program:
Graeme Arnfield, Jonas Baumann, Catherine Biocca, Dina Danish, Jacob Dwyer, Riley Harmon, Daniel Karrer, Jérôme Leuba, Warren Neidich, Sebastian Stumpf

P2P on view:
23.11.–6.12.2018: Jacob Dwyer, DAT LIKWID LAND, 2017
Warren Neidich, Pizzagate, 2018;
7.12.–22.12.2018: Graeme Arnfield, Sitting in the Darkness
Riley Harmon, The Firewall Grove, 2017/18
8.1.–17.1.2019 Short Film Program: Dina Danish, Jérôme Leuba, Sebastian Stumpf, more details will follow
18.1.–9.2.2019: Catherine Biocca, Meeting 1, Solitaire, Kitchen Hunt, Supermarket & Jonas Baumann, Towel
23.11.2018–9.2.2019: Dina Danish, Practicing Foreign Languages, 2007; Jérôme Leuba, battlefield #58/open, 2010; battlefield #98/the program, 2013; battlefield #125, 2017; Sebastian Stumpf, Pfützen, 2013

Peer-to-peer – or P2P for short – platforms are internet platforms that enable communication and exchange on an equal basis. Only those that provide data can take data. With the opening of High Ceiling a new era of gallery reality starts at the Löwenbräu. The platform founded by Barbara Seiler with the collaboration of annex14 becomes a gallery hub which, as a multiplier, contributes to democratisation and offers young galleries, collectives and initiators the possibility of bringing together artists from diverse areas and presenting them to the art market.

The exhibition is founded on exchange, synergy and inspiration. P2P shows artists represented by both galleries as well as Herrmann Germann Conspirators. Exchange, encounters and interaction between art, gallerists and visitors are the goal. P2P is the desire to promote dialogue and encounters with the public, to stimulate discussion and break down barriers in order to meet others eye to eye.

P2P Hall
Pauline Bastard (*1982 in Paris, lives and works in Paris FR) creates complex narratives developed through installations, films and sculptures containing and relating to her experiments. Through collaborations she questions the construction of the self and its place in the contemporary world. Pauline Bastard creates stories, making them happen, using situations as matter and taking seemingly unrealizable experiences as material for production. Alex is a fictional character created by the artiste Pauline Bastard. With the help of an anthropologist, a lawyer, psychoanalyst, stylist, decorator and writer, Alex was imagined and followed for more than a year in the process of integration into real life, faced with the construction of the character’s social, administrative and emotional existence. This project has been awarded by Audi Talent Award and received the support of CNAP (Centre National des Arts Plastiques).

Jonas Baumann (*1983 in Basel CH, lives and works in Basel CH) has a practice that shifts between classical painting and digitally generated images and CGI films. In his work he sounds out the divide between tactile, analogue painting and the disembodied images on screen. After his studies he undertook a studio residency in Montreal, CA. His works have been shown at locations including the following: Haus der Elektronischen Künste HeK, Basel; Kunsthalle Basel; Kunstmuseum Olten, Kunstmuseum Solothurn, Sonnenstube, Lugano, lokal-int Biel, Kunsthalle Palazzo Liestal, akku Emmen, Kunsthalle Luzern, Espace Fibre, Montréal, Usine 106u, Montréal, Gallery RedTown570, Shanghai, and the Shanghai Biennale.

Michał Budny (b. 1976 in Leszno PL, lives and works in Prague, CZ, and Warsaw, PL) reflects on his generation’s experiences of collapse and uncertainty in Poland and expresses his sensitivities and his inner landscapes in ‘poor’ materials like cardboard, sticky tape and paper. In the process aesthetic echoes of Minimalism and Constructivism flow into his poetic works.

Pavel Büchler (b. 1952 in Prague CZ, lives and works in Manchester, UK) Biographical east-west coordinates lead Pavel Büchler continually back to questions of communication, to linguistic abbreviations of daily absurdities or to the non-verbal reversals of pictorial impressions in his ‘Modern Paintings,’ in which paint removed from found oil paintings is mounted back to front.

Simon Callery (b. 1960 in London UK, lives and works in London UK) His ‘paintings’ are sewn together from canvases which have been rubbed through with pigment, with openings allowed into the interior of the work and loose elements. The haptic physicality which this produces and the spatial depth are equally important elements, combined with further characteristics of English landscape painting such as drawing, light and darkness and depth of field.

Jacob Dwyer (*1988 in London UK, lives and works in Amsterdam NL) studied Fine Art at Newcastle University UK, before completing a Masters in Experimental Film at Kingston University UK, and residencies at De Ateliers in Amsterdam (2012–2014) and Deltaworkers New Orleans. His work has been shown in art spaces and film festivals including IFFR Rotterdam, IDFA Amsterdam, BFI London, BALTIC 39 Newcastle, Galerie Juliette Jongma Amsterdam, Rupert, Vilnius and Herrmann Germann Contemporary, Zurich. In 2015 he received the Kino der Kunst Project Award in Munich.

Marcel van Eeden (*1965 in Den Haag, lives and works in Den Haag, Karlsruhe and Zurich) Working within a set of self-imposed parameters, Marcel van Eeden has created drawings that question the way history is codified and recorded. According to his many rules, van Eeden must make a new drawing every day, and all the drawings must be based on found images and text originating on a specific date before he was born. To achieve the graphic novel quality of his illustrations, van Eeden uses pencil or ink on paper, each work a part of a non-linear narrative in which fictional characters randomly reappear in a way that evokes the unreliability of memory. His work has been shown in major museums, including MoMA New York, the Centre Pompidou Paris and the Gemeentemuseum, Den Haag.

Bob Eikelboom (*1991 in Leeuwarden NL) His practice is often characterised by striking imagery but it is primarily about interstitial space: an interlude in which meaning is given to a range of possibilities and combinations, the point that is susceptible to multiple interpretations. This language speaks of the gap between culture and its codes, from high to low. Through his imagery and the use of specific materials Eikelboom creates a link between techniques of derogation and honesty. There is always something behind the work that is not revealed on the surface. We are never sure if the image gives us satisfaction or makes us critical. Bob Eikelboom graduated from the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague (KABK) in 2012, the youngest artist ever to graduate from the school. His work has been shown at the GEM in The Hague (group), Le Plafond Project Space (duo with Martin Kippenberger), at Biennale de Jeune Creation (group) and the Bonnefantenmuseum in Maastricht (group).

Tenki Hiramatsu (*1986 in Wakayama JP, lives and works in Karlsruhe) He studies at the Art Academy Karlsruhe as a Master Student with Marcel van Eeden. In order to function, paintings depend on the observer’s imagination. After all, a painting is in some way entirely a lie and viewed with this implicit understanding. Sometimes the lie protects the viewer. No matter how grotesque or cruel the image you are looking at may be, you are generally able to look at it, comforted by the fact that what is in front of you ‘is just a picture’. However, sometimes this general rule is broken. We are aware that in some cases, the lie will actually hold more power – that in the short term, the semblance of truth may be more powerful than truth itself.

Daniel Karrer (*1983 in Binningen, Basel-Landschaft CH, lives and works in Basel CH) Karrer’s working process is built on the interplay between analogue painting and digital image composition. In this it is important that the subject of the painting can develop an independent dynamic. Karrer illustrates specific qualities of his subject through a variety of methods of colour application and brushwork in a manner which would not be possible in a purely digital image. He has been awarded a Cahier d’Artiste from Pro Helvetia followed by an Atelier Mondial residency in Berlin from the Christoph Merian Stiftung. His works have been shown in numerous exhibitions nationally and internationally at venues including the Strabag Art Award, Vienna, the Aargauer Kunsthaus, the Kunsthalle Basel, sic! Raum für Kunst Luzern, Kunsthalle Winterthur, Museum Langmatt, Baden, Kunstmuseum Olten, Cultuurcentrum Hasselt, Art Rotterdam and, in December 2018, at the Vitromusée Romont.

Sara Masüger (*1978 in Zug, lives and works in Zurich CH) Her practice is sculptural, exclusively focusing on representation of the body or body fragments, which she realizes in acrystal (a polymer which resembles plaster when dry), tin or aluminium. All the bodily elements visible in her sculptures are on a 1:1 scale and her work includes neither drawings, nor preparatory sketches. This absence is justified by the unique source of all her creations, her own body, the smallest parts of which have for many years served as matrices for the realization of her sculptures.

Ana Roldan (b. 1977 in Mexico City MX, lives and works in Zurich CH) Zurich-based Mexican artist Ana Rolan passes commentary on cultural relations between these countries through shifts of meaning, be that of terminology or content. The ‘Negative Bodies’ neon series uses stylistic devices of rhetoric, iconography and negation, while with ‘Black Mirror’ there is a literal and figurative displacement of materials.

P2P Video Corridor
Graeme Arnfield (*1991, UK lives and works in London UK) His work explores issues of communication, spectatorship and history and has been presented worldwide including Berlinale Forum Expanded, International Film Festival Rotterdam, Courtisane Festival, Sonic Acts Festival, Berwick Film & Media Arts Festival, Hamburg International Short Film Festival, Kasseler Dokfest, Internationale Kurzfilmtage Winterthur, LUX, Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) and on Vdrome. He graduated with a Masters in Experimental Cinema at Kingston University.

Catherine Biocca (*1984 in Rome IT, lives and works in Berlin) She layers in her work cartoon imagery, science fiction and human brutality throughout culture/history using a parodistic and low-fi format. Recent exhibitions include solo shows at Frutta Gallery, Rome; Bonsai Feeling, Kunstverein Nürnberg, DE (2017); Unfasten Seatbelt, Jeanine Hofland, Amsterdam; On Display, Basis, Frankfurt; and MEETING 4D, Silberkuppe, Berlin. In 2017 Biocca received the Hans Purrmann Förderpreis and 2016 she received the STRABAG Art Award; her work has been included in several group shows, including the 3rd Animation Biennial Shenzhen, China; Group Show, Greengrassi, London; Discreet Justice, with Charlotte Herzig, PSM Berlin; Ginko Art Space, Beijing; the 3rd Ural Industrial Biennial of Contemporary Art, Yekaterinburg; and the New Media Festival, Miami.

Dina Danish (*1981, French-born Egyptian artist, lives and works in Amsterdam NL) She is motivated by the need to understand various linguistic structures and incidents, Danish uses media like sculpture, painting, video and performance leading to interpretative misunderstandings that are often clumsy and humorous. In her works the most diverse subjects are mixed up, becoming the fundamental elements of an investigation on anything and everything. This includes the use of chewing gum in art and cinema, poets who wanted to be burried under pinball machines, and overlooked Charlie Chaplin haters. Her work has appeared in exhibitions at the Museo D’Arte Moderna di Bologna, Stedelijk Museum Schiedam, De Appel Art Centre in Amsterdam, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and Kunsthall Oslo. 

Jacob Dwyer s. above

Riley Harmon (*1987 Oklahoma US, lives and works in Amsterdam NL) His creative activity originated growing up in community-oriented theatre. Central to his practice is a process of weaving truth, fiction and magical realism into works and narratives that offer an uncanny distorted mirror to our reality – which take shape in performances, films, objects, live experiences, installations and collaboration with other artists. His current artistic practice traverses the social psychology phenomenon of »terror management«; or how symbolic actions both mediate against, yet also reinforce mortal terror. His projects and collaborations have been internationally written about in such publications as Rolling Stone, Wired, American Theatre Magazine and he has exhibited, performed, and screened works internationally – at such venues as the Nederlands Instituut voor Mediakunst (Montevideo), FACT (Foundation for Art and Creative Technology) in Liverpool, de Appel, EYE Film Museum, Schirn Kunsthalle, among others – as well as self-made contexts.

Jérôme Leuba (*1970 CH, lives and works in Geneva CH) »Le trou dans l’image« (the hole in the image) is what Jérôme Leuba calls those details in the image that can guide our gaze, as if by chance, to something concealed, censored and repressed. For the artist, these »holes in the image« uncover a wide field of conjecture and speculation to be seen by the attentive observer through what is shown.

Sebastian Stumpf (*1980 Würzburg DE, lives and works in Leipzig DE) In his serial works, for example, the video projection »Pfützen« (2017), his presence in the confusion of the city and its suburban transit zones becomes a fragile constant. Borderline experience and critical reflection are also themes in the works of Sebastian Stumpf. The quasi defiant presence of man, respectively the artist, in the image also points to the fine balance in the dialogue between the I and the world.

Warren Neidich (*1958 in New York, US, lives and works in Los Angeles US and Berlin DE) Working interdisciplinary, artist, writer and theorist Warren Neidich (zooms in on the neuronal conditions, which make up for our perceptions of reality. Based on the assumption that our brains is plastic matter that can be sculpted, and that each information feeds into its structure, continually shaping and transforming it, Neidich strives to unlock visual art’s potential to break down ingrained thought patterns in order to enable new ways of thinking. Noise music, the dissonant sounds and unusual rhythms of which go against the grain of our listening habits, is but one example for such processes of mental reformatting. For his piece »Scoring the Tweet(s)« (2017), the artist developed a composition of his own, in which he translated 195 tweets by Donald Trump into a musical score. Neidich calls his field of research »neuro-aesthetics«, fusing various disciplines and intellectual traditions: Surrealist and dadaist deconstruction meets futurist techno-utopianism; German romantic philosophy’s musings about chaos meet scientific findings about our sense of vision. In ways, which are intuitive, and at times almost playful, Neidich ties these threads together with discourses on the digital era.