Zürich

huber.huber

Twin brothers Markus und Reto Huber (*1975 in Münsterlingen/ Switzerland) both
studied at the Hochschule für Gestaltung und Kunst in Zurich (2002-2005).
Since 2002 they have collaborated as huber.huber.

Working across a wide range of media their main focus is on works on paper,
sculptures and installations.
In 2006 huber.huber won the Julius Baer Cultural Prize and a grant from the city of
Zurich for a residency in New York (2006/2007). Their work will be featured in the
publication “Pilot 3” produced for this year’s Venice Biennale 2007 by the independent
art forum Pilot London.

huber.huber live and work in Zurich.

I like what the Hubers do a lot. They’ve built an amazing amount
of birdhouses made out of crap found on the streets here in the
East Village and hanged them back on poles and facades.
Actually it is the same type of improvised structure that bums
use to build for a night, before the sanitation department or the
cops clean it away in the morning. Huber’s birdhouses are a
system of abstract signs (no birds so far) and an open comment
on gentrification and hope. Most of the neighbors love the
fictional potential of the story. I think they are still waiting for the
birds to come and sing nice tunes in the morning hours.
The twin brothers also make collages of fights between
Geishas and monster ants, paint meteorites on old
photographs, make drawings of hunting women found on the
internet or bleach American flags in a week-long process until
they are white. www.hiddentrack.cc

2007 Gianni Jetzer

Gianni Jetzer is Director of the Swiss Institute in New York.

As most people I have been involved in creative activity from a young age. Mixing and messing around with paint as well as making funny little sculptures out of clay and stuff…I always have enjoyed expressing myself in some kind of artistic manner. When I was five I participated in one of Arno Stern’s “Malort” (painting Spaces), which was something like an art studio for kids, supervised by an adult that helps you handle the paint. The good thing about “studio 88” was that no one tried to tell you what to paint or influence or criticise your work in progress, which I think helped me understand later that art is fundamentally about self-expression. My first degree at the ‘Liceo Artistico’ left me with a slightly different understanding of art. The classes “ Plastique”, “Geometriche”, and “Pittoriche” taught us how to develop a concept and professionalize your skills, this seemed to be as an important to art making as having strong emotions and freely expressing your thoughts. I think it was this rather conceptual approach towards art making that caught my interest. After five years Liceo, art revealed itself to me as being more of a science than I would ever have thought and so I decided to go and check out the place where art was “really happening”, i.e. London. Central St. Martins College of Art&Design was real different to what I had expected. Suddenly art was not about drawing, sculpting and painting classes anymore, but totally “self-directed”, about the presentation of your concepts and “selling yourself”??????? To be honest, I thought I was in the wrong movie. However, the whole thing was fascinating. CSM teaches that the key feature to an artwork is the concept. Skill is a secondary thing; if your concepts are good you don’t have to worry about the skill. If you work conceptually you either don’t need any skill at all or you hand your concept over to a professional to realize the final project. -Why waste time on craftsmanship? – Well, I let you decide on this one. While I was struggling to produce concepts, I decided that spending as much time participating in art events such as, exhibitions, happenings, performances, talks, discussions and tours, fit my ideas. I contributed to various events and went to see shows abroad, Art Basel, Art Forum Berlin, Biennale Venice, Prague Biennale, this was as important to my practice as being at college. I have come to the conclusion that art making for me really involves several components. My early work was emotional, my recent work is conceptual, none of my work is bound to a specific medium or craft. All of my work is initiated by thoughts that lead to an emotion which I formulate in an idea that I develop conceptually. My work is inspired by artists and thinkers who deal with contemporary developments in culture, society and describe or comment on our changing perception of value. It relates to artists that have visions of improving live through art and blur boundaries between art and life, but also remind of the failure of this kind of ambition. My recent art practice, which mainly manifests itself in the form of video, installation and performance art, reflects this interest in its attempt to ask direct questions about art and our perception of the artist as a self-sufficient individual in society. As an artist I have the ambition to inspire thoughts about form and concept of contemporary art as a reflection of modern society.

EXHIBITION Summer 2006, DA Exhibition, Highstreet Kensington, London Artist,Curator Spring 2006, Degree Show Central St. Martins College, London Artists Summer 2005, ‘Response’ Exhibition / Residency in Ceski Krumlov, Czech Republic Artist, Curator Spring 2005, Chisenhale Gallery, London Assistant Spring 2004 & 2005, Degree Show Central St. Martins College, London Assistant Winter 2005, Women Exhibition in Lauderdale House, London Artist, Curator Summer 2002, Equilibrium Exhibition, Zurich Artist, Curator EDUCATION 2007 Columbia university, New York 2003- 2006 Central St.Martins College of Art and Design, London BA (Honors) Fine Arts 2002- 2003 Foundation Studies, Central St.Martins College of Art & Design, London 1997- 2002 Liceo Artistico Italian/German Science & Art Gymnasium, Zurich