RHEIN AM RENO

Ramon Feller, Matthias Liechti, Simon Fahrni, Gabriel Stoeckli, Gianmaria Zanda

curated by Riccardo Lisi

28/01 – 19/02/2017

The title Rhein am Reno  derives from the homonymy between the rivers of Bologna and Basel – the city where were operating the three German Swiss participants (Fahrni, Feller and Liechti) – and the river of Bologna, which flows in the bowels of the earth a few meters from Gelateria Sogni di Ghiaccio. The other two included artists come from Ticino and are Stöckli and Zanda, who shared in Ticino with the three above-named a striking show in June 2016.
Even the involved artists are running independent spaces (in Lugano and Bern) and many are the points of contact with Marzocchi and Pajè, starting from the attention given to performance art and experimental independent music.
The exhibition is developed on site, from concepts such heterodoxy, the interaction with the audience and random factors, the transfiguration of traditional techniques and forms, the object fetish, and the dichotomy between designed object and objet trouvé, the understatement and the reflection on the visual artist’s role, the evocation of mysterious social phenomena, such as collective hypnosis, and finally the metaphorical mapping of places, starting precisely from the two Rhine rivers, rather as different in width and importance.
The project is curated by Riccardo Lisi, director of the independent space la rada, in Locarno, and is possible just thanks the hospitality offered by Gelateria Sogni di Ghiaccio.