French artist Marianne Villière's work is influenced by critical theories, microsociology and civil disobedience practices. Her recent work "Pollinisation" shows a group of people sticking their noses into flowers as insects. An absurdity, a fun childish game that turns into sadness, facing the reality of the ecological news. The work "Pollinisation" confronts us in a poetic way with the current ecological crisis".
Tiré d'une copie de copie pirate de la Chute d'Icare - aujourd'hui disparue – de Pieter Brueghel dA, manipulée en anaglyphe, où seul Icare bouge encore... Les secours sont en route !
Postmodernism has appropriated "copy-paste." We are convinced that remakes are a postmodern phenomenon.
From Duchamp's ready-made "Fontaine" to Andy Warhol's mechanical reproductions, the consensus in art today is that nothing can be original anymore. The artist is not looking for originality, but for authenticity, i.e. the most authentic way to implement existing ideas or materials. Copying ideas from other artists and implementing them in a new way is morally okay. Even in the commercial entertainment industry, aka Hollywood, remakes are produced on a large scale every year. But remakes and copy-paste have always been around. Not only in art, but also in science and nature.
After 143 years, the bus stop juraplatz is no longer used. On Sunday December 13th at 00:45 min, the last trolley bus passed by the bus stop.
The collective JURAPLATZ pays tribute to this historical moment by showing a Videoloop of the line 1.
The art space JURAPLATZ continues!
Are you waiting for the bus? At the bus stop on Juraplatz, questions about time appear, which are displayed in the art space while you wait for the bus, which comes every 11 minutes. How much time do we have to see this work, how many and which questions from the projection do we get to see? Is there a question that still keeps me busy on the bus, or even makes me miss it? The questions about time confront us with our waiting situation, with different kinds of "waiting" that take up our time in life again and again. Art Space Juraplatz projects the questions throughout the night - until daybreak.
“Linked Objects” is initiated by the International Environmental Art Symposium Nine Dragon Heads’ international artists. The project comprises an exhibition and conference dedicated to the wider perception of the COVID-19 consequences in contemporary culture and art and other art events researching the influence of outbreak.
We say that digital communication made the world smaller meaning that we are interconnected through our avatars in the virtual world. What the outbreak of the COVID-19 clearly showed is that we are connected through our real bodies as well in an analog world. This bond turned out to be no less solid or mutually influential than any world wide web.
Today in lockdown, we are linked to each other not only through social networks, messages and emails but also the shared fears and hopes for medical treatment that can bring rapid change back to normal. We try to understand and assess the situation we found ourselves in. In our bizarre life-saving encapsulation, with numerous questions and expectations in the background, we attempt to cope with separation, staying still and non-involvement in the stopped world.
The artist Nora Renaud makes her second presence, based on the video material, captured by her phone in the performance made a month before in the art space juraplatz.
JURAPLATZ presents TERAPIA_finissage: a "one night stand" presence of swiss artist Nora Renaud's avatar called : Quietapina that will be present to create a link between "The Silence Festival" : a group show taking place at the same time in Mexico City Where the public encounters works that have been"silented" from a list of 25 artists visible in 3 points from the street during covid 19 confinement in the other continent among them Nora Renaud's avatar DIAGNOSISISCARNAVAL_Quietapina projected presence. While the wave of Covid had aproximatlely 1 month or more of delay compare to the western countries in Mexico City is still confined, here in Switzerland, during the swiss national celebration on 1 st of august, people masked by law from the bus can meet the avatar in real and share its individual memories through postcards and make selfies in a deconfined moment as a ritual that auto generates therapy and "insta historias".
The video works of the renowned South Korean artist Jisong Lee are always constructed in a simple and minimalist way. In this case, the video "Seeing Inside Out" created in the year 2011 in the north of the United States, was filmed by an iPhone placed randomly between the moss, in a static position and without cuts, creating a natural "Fade out" produced by the sunset. The slight, slow movement of the iPhone's fall as it slides through the bushes and brush induces the presence of an observer, creating a voyeuristic sensation.
The series "Insect" by Swiss artist Kurt Caviezel shows us different corners of the world through the lens of surveillance cameras. In the captured moments, it is not - as is usually the case - people who enter the picture, but insects. This apparent obstacle is the basic element of this series: within the filmed landscape, the insect becomes the central object. These fragments of a large network of the global surveillance system remind us of the futuristic visions of George Orwell and Aldous Huxley, in which people are defined as "social insects".
The video work "The Greeting" by the artist Adela Picón will be presented in the Offspace JURAPLATZ. People meet, greet and embrace each other until one person merges with the other and only the white canvas remains. Adela Picón developed the work "The Greeting" for an extensive exhibition in the Historical Museum of Sant Feliu de Guixols (Catalonia) in collaboration with the population of the city.
An embrace or handshake between immigrants and natives makes "The Greeting" part of a political work that focuses on tradition, the past, acceptance and integration.
In Offspace Juraplatz, the video work is recontextualized in times of the "forbidden greeting" and thus takes on a new form and a new meaning.
Aube radieuse et mer indolente pour une partie de pêche. En avant plan une bouée d'enfant (de secours ?) est ballottée.
Video documentation: Robert Walser sculpture, a presence and production project by Thomas Hirschhorn as part of the 13th edition of the Swiss Sculpture Exhibition in Biel / Switzerland (15.6.-8.9.2019). The Robert Walser Sculpture in honour of the Swiss writer born in Biel/Bienne is an 86-day experience platform consisting of over 35 daily events, which were developed in cooperation with the population of Biel/Bienne. For three years, this finely woven presence and production sculpture was developed along the complex themes of Robert Walser.
Des vagues nocturnes s'abattent sur un littoral préromantique figé. En avant de l'écran plane une fantomatique bouée.
"Neutral Nations" is a multimedia installation by the artist Enrique Muñoz García based on a collection of found video footage: the presidents and military leaders of various countries look through binoculars into the DMZ between the two Koreas. A binocular symoblizes espionage, control, and military use in general. In this video the two Koreas engage in mutual observation, a process that marks the complex relationship between the two countries that originates from the 1950s.
The term "Neutral Nations" was defined as those nations whose combat forces did not participate in the hostilities in Korea. Switzerland is an active part of this supervisory commission.
Luzia Hürzeler’s in situ installation examines the relationship between image and object and between an object and its double, and also plays on the internal and the external. This work, which was created especially for the festival questions the porosity between oneself and the other, and between illusion and reality. The Juraplatz art space is set in relation to its "double" at the Brühlplatz and offers viewers an exhibition dispositive that mixes photographie and architecture.
Biel/Bienne Festival of Photography
Curated by Sarah Girard
The 23rd edition of the Biel/Bienne Festival of Photography will explore the theme of overflow, both real and virtual, in today’s society. On the internet, a “flood” is an action that inundates the network and saturates digital forums, rendering them unusable. Vast quantities of information are shared every day by more than four billion internet users, whether they are aware of it or not. This constant stream of passing data has an impact on society that cannot be fully grasped, but it also presents opportunities for both individual and social development.
TEK, TO and NIK are three natural Verrucano stones weighing six to eleven tons from the UNESCO World Heritage Site Tectonic Arena Sardona, which celebrated its 10th anniversary last year.
TEK stands for Glarus, TO represents St.Gallen and NIK embodies Graubünden - the World Heritage Site extends over all these cantons.
The three stones toured Switzerland during the entire anniversary year 2018 and visited several other UNESCO World Heritage sites. The action was conceived by the artist duo Com&Com (Johannes M. Hedinger, Marcus Gossolt).
For 130 years since its invention, the camera has not been a neutral tool in my relationship with the other. My SLR camera with function built-in video creates distance. It does not allow space for empathy. My relationship with the other is technologically hindered by this tool. My camera is black, phallic and shaped like a gun. The technical possibilities in terms of efficiency, design and image production are the main appealing qualities for the user. However, none of its features encourages co-creation between the operator and the other. It does not technically allow them to collaborate.
Like a mighty iceberg, a structure glued together from transparent PET material floats on the water. Accompanied by the mystical siren song of Karin Streule from Inner Rhodes, the camera follows the twists and turns of the polyester construction just above and below the surface of the water. Just as the mythical hybrid beings with divine voices lured sailors into the cliffs and caused them to fail, the spherical sounds in the video work Seeplastik (2010) seem to conjure up the dangers of today's environmental pollutants and the imbalance of the ecological system.
Over the years Stefan Rohner has collected consumables made of plastic, fascinated by the nature of material and form. The result is an oversized and molecular-like structure that, in the age of plastics, is a reminder of the problem of floating waste particles on the world's oceans. The work Seeplastik quotes with humour and lightness an artificial (siren) island. Like a brightly shining angel, in Seeplastik a floating plastic body spreads its wings over the achievements of organic polymer - a material that has become almost indispensable in everyday life. Nadia Veronese
"Hats off" ( Hut Ab) is a tribute by the Galerie Juraplatz to the Biel artist and long-standing Visarte president Robert Schüll. The installation contains around a thousand photos, animated in a video film, as well as 12 hats by Robert Schüll, which Hildegard Lanz provided for the exhibition.
Salt—a necessity for everyone—is often ignored by most people. It is frequently overlooked, as a part of the whole meal, an element to which people don’t give much thought. It is hidden behind the food, hidden within it. It has trouble attracting our attention, and it wouldn’t be counted amongst the spiritual necessities of mankind. Only occasionally when salt runs out, do people say: “Oh, it’s time to buy some salt.” Then we find "A Packet of Salt." The process of making and transporting the salt, the producers, people and factory either have something or nothing to do with it. Under the bleaching rays of the sun, in the silence of the lens, people slowly approach and pass by the camera, without saying a word.
Hunter, I’ve taken your memory presents a selection of motion sensor captured, plus infrared night view images, from the original contents of an unknown bowhunter’s SD memory card.
Taste of Tea is an art project elaborated within the International Interdisciplinary Environmental Art Symposium, named Nine Dragon Heads.
Nine Dragon Heads was initiated in South Korea in response to the destruction of an important historical site in 1996. Over twenty years it has evolved into an open interdisciplinary platform where artists from all over the world implement individual and collaborative art projects; related to universal humanitarian, environmental and cultural issues. Working in a framework of thematic and multimedia formats Nine Dragon Heads unites artists from all five continents.
The question festival in the old town of Biel brings life's big questions to the streets. For 12 hours, the "Night of the thousand questions" provides a platform for reflection, conversation, listening and curiosity.
The swiss artist susanne muller (Prêles, Berlin) will present her latest project: ~ flow velocity ~ flowing through the old town (la suze bienne).
This exhibition marks the culmination of the second edition of the Life Framer photography award. It features work from 24 winning photographers along with selected honorary mentions, each chosen by a globally-acclaimed jury across twelve diverse themes exploring ‘Life’.
Along with physical gallery exhibitions in London, Paris and Los Angeles, Life Framer travels to Switzerland for a special pop-up digital exhibition at Juraplatz.
Jump into the Unknown", an official collateral event of the 56th Biennale di Venezia, presents the works of 40 international artists and marks the 20th anniversary of the International Environmental Art Symposium - Nine Dragon Heads.
The scene shows an endless camera shot through a fictional building place. The workers, machines and other image elements were filmed in Dubai, New York, Paris, Beijing, Johannesburg, London and in Switzerland. They form a landscape of real buildings and enlarged computer components.
Juraplatz shows the history of the Juraplatz / Place du Jura in Biel/Bienne. Out of 15 selected documents and photos, Dr. Phil. Margrit Wick-Werder describes the history and development of the Juraplatz in the past 370 years.
In the Experimental film "gated community" from Začek/Köppl, there are two bordered perimeters, one in the inside and one on the outside. Within these fields, the continues orbiting of a Camera, both Protagonists explore - temporarily supported by a Donkey and two Dogs - with performance and film techniques the constitution of the individual, in light of the limitations.
The Life Framer Award Show is the culmination of the first edition of the Life Framer photography award. Following a successful exhibition at theprintspace in the heart of London, UK, the award show travels to Switzerland, for a special pop-up exhibition at Juraplatz.
A film about a house that lives, loves, shifts and self-destructs. A house and its objects, a house and the materials of which it is made.
Cameras that recognise moving people and vehicles, facial recognition software, traffic measuring and guidance systems, cameras that can read traffic signs, and motion capture technology: our everyday life is now filled with image recognition technologies like these. Such systems observe, analyse and generate images of our behaviour, representing everyday scenes in fragmentary and disconcerting ways: often in simple and garishly coloured graphics that jump and flit around the screen. Traffic flow is depicted as arrows and faces as ovals, while lines trace out human motion through public spaces. The precise numbering of hundreds of objects and the tracing of human motion are uncanny and somewhat disturbing.
The serie Pin Zhuang, which means "dismantled" or "puzzle" in Chinese, was inspired by the 2001 Hainan Island incident, in which an American spy plane crashed on Chinese soil. After extensive negotiations the EP-3 aircraft was returned to the U.S. after being completely dismantled.
An endless camera shot in a park in Johannesburg – it is noon, autumn; a group of people lies nearly motionless under a tree whilst others go about their everyday doings. White birds hover, without orientation and yet with wings ceaselessly fluttering, above the group. The idyllic midday nap of the sleepers stands in stark contrast to thoughts of unemployment, vanity and death.
A dinner on the roof of the juraplatz bus station.
Cantine mobile is a platform for various cooking and eating events. Various places become gastronomic objects.
A collaborative work by students LN and JK with Bruce Allan at a Nine Dragon Heads workshop organised at the School for Graphic Design of the District in Biel/Bienne between NDH artists and students. After presentations from both sides, groups consisting of one Nine Dragon Head and two students combined to realise one minute films.
A genuine work in progress, “Zapping” is the product of three years of work collecting sequences recorded using the camera in the artist’s mobile phone. The proposed soundtrack is sourced from a mix of five television channels selected by the photographer.
The Nine Dragon Heads Symposium 3PAW (11th to 23rd october 2011) was the first „international environment art symposium“ of its kind in Switzerland. susanne muller (artist), Daniela de Maddalena (artist) and Annelise Zwez (art critic) – all experienced Nine Dragon Heads – have organised it on the spot, in virtual contact with Park Byoung Uk – Head of the Heads.
Bieler Fototage 2011 / Le Temps fait son oeuvre
The fifteenth edition of the Biel/Bienne Festival of Photography offers new reflections on the nature of time in contemporary photography. As time does its work, it creates the photographic image. Indeed the role of time is decisive in allgenres of photography, from fashioning the latent image, to its analog or digital "revelation", to viewing the final result.
Background — X and Y are invited to participate the Chinese artist Chen Yongwei for a collaboration work.
Materials and Preparation — Small bulbs with batteries connected, attached to the heads, shoulders, hips and hands. Camera and darkened room.
In relation to Dislocation Exhibition, created and curated by Ingrid Wildi Merino, the video I WANNA BE CHINESE / DINGHI –ELECTRIC BICYCLES FROM CHINA from Rainer Ganahl will be presented at Juraplatz.
Big Pool is presented at Juraplatz, Biel, as a part of the Exhibition "Dislocation", created and curated by Ingrid Wildi Merino. Big Pool is a video made by Nicolas Rupcich in collaboration with Emilio Marín.
K-Objekt is a photography project by Enrique Muñoz García concerning the renovation of the building that once housed the former Pharmacie du Jura and today's Caritas on the Juraplatz in Biel.
JURAPLATZ is a nonprofit independent Public Art Space and works as a satellite for international artists and festivals. Converted into an art-platform from a tram stop dating from the late ’30s, it sits in the city of Biel/Bienne, the heart of the Swiss watch-making industry. JURAPLATZ was founded in October 2010 by Enrique Muñoz García and has been hosting important exhibitions.
Team
Carolina Borer / Administration
John-David Deubl / Web
Enrique Muñoz García / Founder and curator
External Curators
Ingrid Wildi Merino / Dislocacion in Kontinuum
Sarah Girard / Biel/Bienne Festival of Photography
Hélène Joye-Cagnard and Catherine Kohler / Biel/Bienne Festival of Photography
Park Byoung Uk / Nine Dragon Heads
Magda Guruli / Artisterium
Cultural partner institutions
Biel/Bienne Festival of Photography
Life Framer Photography Prize
Nacht der 1000 Fragen Festival
Nine Dragon Heads / Artists Collective
Entre le temps
First Friday
Supported by
Stadt Biel
Swisslos/Kultur Kanton Bern
Migros-Kulturprozent
GVB Kulturstiftung
Stiftung Temperatio
Naturzentrum Biel
Contact
Enrique Muñoz García
Switzerland
info@juraplatz.ch
+41 (0) 76 454 28 31