For the second time, the Museum Langmatt presents the exhibition vessel Space Travel. The term is intended to be taken literally: visitors are invited to explore (cellar) spaces that were previously inaccessible, or only rarely accessible. In this way, a «Langmatt seen from beneath» is opened up, contrasting with the grand spaces and indirectly telling us about the invisible work of the former servants. Space Travel presents snapshots of young, contemporary Swiss art, and encourages the exploration of new artistic modes of speaking.
Under the title Fragmentary Pieces this year’s Space Travel explores the proposition that part of contemporary art is hermetic and largely inaccessible. Crude and often unwieldy artworks appear forbidding to the public. Their raw surfaces, raw breakages, sharp ends and glaring lights are felt as a challenge to the senses. If they appear to wish to evade simple art consumption, then this is precisely where their potential lies. With the ever-progressing aestheticizing of the everyday world and flood of digital images, sensory experience in our present-day culture has been subjected to a swift, fundamental transformation. The artworks respond sensitively to the contrasts produced by the increasing mixing of reality and fiction: highly aesthetic factors collide with archaic fragments, thus significantly sharpening our perception for these upheavals.
Main picture: Exhibition view Space Travel II with artworks by Micha Zweifel