Roman Signer Installation am Bielbach Montafon Silvrettasee, Silvretta-Bielerhöhe im Montafon. Photo: Miro Kuzmanovic
Wind, water, energy – Roman Signers ‘Installation am Bielbach’ is now on view at the Silvretta reservoir at more than 2000m altitude at Bielerhöhe, Montafon. The work was realized by Roman Signer in collaboration with the Kunsthaus Bregenz and illwerke vkw AG on the Bielerhöhe in Montafon at an altitude of over 2000 meters. The absurd manipulation — a water jet becoming an architectural element, and a liquid element a static structure and thus a sculpture — is typical of Signer’s work.
The Paradox of Stillness: Art, Object, and Performance May 15 – Aug 8, 2021
Presenting works from the early 20th century to today, The Paradox of Stillness: Art, Object, and Performance examines the notion of stillness as both a performative and visual gesture. This major Walker-organized exhibition features pieces by an international roster of artists testing the boundaries between stillness and motion, mortality and aliveness, the still life and the living picture.
Curators: Vincenzo de Bellis, curator and associate director of programs, Visual Arts; with Jadine Collingwood, former curatorial assistant, Visual Arts; and William Hernández Luege, curatorial fellow, Visual Arts
Vues d’installation / Installation views, Roman Signer, Malmö Konsthall, 2023 Photo: Helene ToresdotterVues d’installation / Installation views, Roman Signer, Malmö Konsthall, 2023 Photo: Helene ToresdotterVues d’installation / Installation views, Roman Signer, Malmö Konsthall, 2023 Photo: Helene ToresdotterVues d’installation / Installation views, Roman Signer, Malmö Konsthall, 2023 Photo: Helene ToresdotterVue d’exposition / Installation view, Roman Signer, Sculptures et une installation, Art : Concept, Paris, oct – nov, 2022. Courtesy the artist; Art : Concept, Paris. Photo by: Romain DarnaudVue d’exposition / Installation view, Roman Signer, Sculptures et une installation, Art : Concept, Paris, oct – nov, 2022. Courtesy the artist; Art : Concept, Paris. Photo by: Romain DarnaudRoman Signer, Paddel, 2021. Ventilateur et pagaie / Fan and paddle. 150 × 180 × 180 cm (59 × 70 ⅞ × 70 ⅞ inches). 25 × 950 × 130 cm (9 ⅞ × 374 × 51 ⅛ inches). Courtesy the artist; Art : Concept, Paris. Photo by: Romain DarnaudTombé du ciel, Frac Franche-Comté, Besançon, 2022. Photo Blaise Adilon. Courtesy the artist and Art : Concept, ParisExhibition view, Calder Now, Kunsthal Rotterdam, 2021-2022. Courtesy of the artist and Kunsthal RotterdamInstallation view, Moment.Monument, Aspects of contemporary sculpture, Kunstmuseum Winterthur, 2021Installation view KUB Project, Roman Signer, Installation on Bielbach Bielerhöhe, Montafon, 2021Exhibition view The Paradox of Stillness: Art, Object, and Performance, Walker Art Center, 2020. Photo Pierre Ware. Courtesy of the artist and the Walker Art CenterRoman Signer,Sketch for a sculpture of 2004. Exhibition Roman Signer. Skizzen 1970-2020, Buendner Kunstmuseum, Chur, 2020. Courtesy of the artist and the museumInstallation view Roman Signer, Château de Montsoreau-Musée d’Art contemporain, 2019Kabine, 2017. Cprint, 15 3/4 x 23 5/8 in., ed 10. Private collection MCKajak, 2014. Kayak, metal trunck, 21 1/4 x 47 1/4 x 31 1/2 in., ed 2. Private collectionInstallation view, Roman Signer: Kitfox Experimental, KINDL – Zentrum für zeitgenössische Kunst (Kesselhaus), Berlin, 2014Installation view, Installation avec deux ventilateurs, Bund 18, Shanghai, 2013Maison double, 2011-12, brass, 18 1/8 x 10 1/4 x 10 1/4 in. Aktion in Sedrun, 2010, color photograph, 48 x 48 in., ed 6 + 2 AP. Parapluie, 2010, umbrella, plexiglas, demineralised water, 36 5/8 x 7 7/8 x 7 7/8 in. Beim Chef, 2009. Color photograph, 11 3/4 x 15 3/4 in., ed 3 + 3 AP. Untitled, 2009, cardboard and glasses, variable dimensions. Flussaufwärts, Bergelia, 2008. Colour print pasted on aluminium, 35 3/8 x 23 5/8 in. Holzobjekt mit Uhr, 2008 wood, clock, 6 1/4 x 35 3/8 x 17 3/4 in. Wagen, 2006, mixed media, variable dimensions. Bateau pneumatique, 2006, dinghy, box, harpoon, variable dimensions. Table fumeur, 2005, wooden table, wood and aluminium box, rocket, cigarette, 28 3/8 x 42 1/8 x 27 1/8 in. Kajak, 2005, Barrel, cut kayak and water pump, 51 1/8 x 23 5/8 x 11 3/4 in. Zelt, 2002, video DVD, 25 seconds. Vier Räder, 2002. Cprint, 11 3/4 x 17 3/4 in, ed 10 + 3 AP. Schallplatte, 2002, wood, vinyl, clay, paper. Tente et Helicoptère, 2000, mixed media, variable dimensionsBidon et aspirateurs, 1997, Barrel, vacuums, leaves variable dimensionsLeiter, 1995, color photograph, 19 7/8 x 13 3/4 in., ed 10 + 3 AP. Schweben (To float), 1995, b&w photograph on barytine paper, 14 1/8 x 9 1/2 in., ed 10. Schwarzes Tuch, 1994. B&W photography on barytine paper, polyptych of 6, 12 5/8 x 9 1/2 in each, ed 10. Public collection: Museum van Loon, Amsterdam/NLBarrel, 1993 barrel, hoover, dried leaves, variable dimensions. Private collection FRAction mit Fässern, 1992, b&w print, quadriptych, 15 3/4 x 12 in each. Private collection FRHeliport, 1989-2018, blow up basin, helicopter, 19 5/8 x 47 1/4 x 47 1/4. in.) Wagen mit Kohlensäuredruckflasche (chariot), 1985, wood, fire extinguisher, rope, rubber, 13 x 41 x 22 7/8 in. Private collection MC2 Ballone, Triptych, color photograph, 1983. 14 5/8 x 18 7/8 in, ed 10. Bogen, 1978. C-print, 9 7/8 x 11 3/4 in., ed 10 + 3 AP. Private collection FR
Biography
Roman Signer was born in 1938 in Appenzel Switzerland. He lives and works in Saint Gallen, Switzerland. Since the mid-seventies, Roman Signer has showed and re-enacted paradoxes. The mini-shows and non-happenings generated by his sculptures, installations and performances and documented by his videos and photographs form a permanent questioning on the economy of entertainment. With a light approach, his work tackles modern concerns such as efficiency, performance or productivity as well as our deeply rooted obsession with functionality.
Renowned for his “Actions”, Signer has often been defined as a pyrotechnical artist or given the label of “explosion-artist”, but he refuses to be circumscribed by the abundant literature and many remarks circulating on his work. The body of work that he has created is in itself extremely versatile, encompassing various disciplines such as happening, sculpture, drawing, installation, photography and video.
Regardless of the chosen medium, the creative process often reveals, by means of a structured suspension in time, what is scarcely or very seldom visible. Signer’s skills are all turned towards the reproduction of a magic moment, almost ritualized by his work: the moment when slight transformation of shape and matter are possible. Signer combines the simplicity of everyday gestures and materials to the complexity of technical devices and physical phenomena, activated without the necessity of keeping them under total control. Signer’s presence is sometimes triggering and off-camera, while sometimes he turns into a real stuntman: the Sisyphus-like boulder pushing character of his own work.
His work is present, among others, in the following collections : Museum Of Old And New Art (MONA), Tasmania; Musée National d’Art Moderne, Paris; FNAC, Paris-La défense; Museum für Moderne Kunst (MMK), Frankfurt/Main; Kunstmuseum St.Gallen, St. Gallen; Kunsthaus Zug, Zug; Kunsthaus Zürich, Zurich; MOCA Grand Avenue, Los Angeles; et dans de nombreux FRAC, Fonds régionaux d’Art Contemporain, dont le FRAC Ile-de-France, Paris.
Solo exhibitions include: Tombé du ciel, Frac Franche-Comté, Besançon/FR (2022); The little Art window, Gstaad/CH (2021) ; Skizzen, Museum of Fine Arts, Chur/CH (2020) ; New Sculptures, Videos and Installations, Kunsthaus Zug, Zug/CH (2019) ; Roman Signer, Film & Video: 1975-1989 and Now, Luxelakes – A4 Art Museum, Chengdu/ROC (2018) ; Le temps gelè / Die gefrorene Zeit, Centre de la photographie, Geneva/CH (2016) ; Roman Signer: Slow Movement, The Barbican Curve, London/UK (2015) ; High Line Channel 22, ‘Kayak’, New York/US (2013) ; Kunsthalle Mainz, ‘Attila Csörgo und Roman Signer’, Mainz/DE (2012) Art:Concept, Paris/FR (2011) ; Four rooms, one artist, Swiss Institute, New York/US (2010) ; Secession, Vienna/AT (1999) ; Swiss Pavilion, 48th Venice Biennale, Venice/IT (1999).
