Birgit Kempker (* 1956 in Wuppertal, lives in Basel) is one of Switzerland’s most mysterious and most inventive authors. She is known for her prose and audio works, for which she has received a number of awards. In the Langmatt, she appears for the first time as a fearless graphical artist. In her sketches, language and images find a common wavelength; they pose major existential questions in a fully forceful way, but also with a delicate and vulnerable quality. In these artworks, humour and desperation are revealed in a paradoxical and magical symbiosis, with an inescapable suggestive impact.
In the Brown family library, we will be presenting (on the collection’s historic tables), a selection of the original volumes for visitors to leaf through. This opens up an adventurous rollercoaster ride through the uncertainties of human existence in a time of heightened insecurities.
A digital book by Esther Hunziker will be published to accompany the exhibition, with the drawings by Birgit Kempker.
Main photo: Birgit Kempker, don't leave me alone, 2018–2021, 29,7 × 21 cm, mixed technique on paper, photo: Serge Hasenböhler
