Taiyo Onorato & Nico Krebs: The Casting
28 Mar - 16 May 2009
Within the framework of Suzie Q Projects, Birgid Uccia and Bob van Orsouw are proud to present the artist duo, Taiyo Onorato and Nico Krebs. These two artists, born 1979 in Switzerland, received international recognition, above all, through their New York solo exhibitions at PS1 MoMA (2006) and at the Swiss Institute (2008).
Taiyo Onorato and Nico Krebs studied photography at the Zurich Academy of Arts, but cannot be reduced to this medium alone; sculpture and installation play an ever-increasing role in their oeuvre. While their earlier work mostly consist of tinkered-together makeshift objects that served the artists as photo subjects, this past year has seen a series of independent sculptures. Persons who have been caught by the artist’s camera in zany actions—for example, in order to illustrate the imaginary suffering of a hypochondriac—are likewise part of the photographic interest and thus introduce a reference to performance art. In both cases the observer is presented with a staged reality, thereby calling photography self-referentially in question as a prosaic means of documenting reality.
In our exhibition, Onorato and Krebs devote themselves to the theme of society’s myths and likewise take a further step in the direction of sculptural work. In Berlin, where the artists live today, a number of monuments immortalize socialist history and the so-called heroic acts of the Red Army. This omnipresence of bronze and stone protagonists from a past era led the artists to inquire into which objects and ideas, TV celebrities and everyday heroes, lasting childhood memories and social realities could be carved in stone or cast in bronze today. Which monuments would we like to keep alive for posterity in the sense of a contemporary production of legends? Onorato and Krebs have answered this question in a tangible way by producing detailed reliefs made of acrylic resin. Furthermore, a series of photographs that focus on the subject of existing monuments as well as a video work are in reference to this theme.
Christiane Büntgen
Taiyo Onorato and Nico Krebs studied photography at the Zurich Academy of Arts, but cannot be reduced to this medium alone; sculpture and installation play an ever-increasing role in their oeuvre. While their earlier work mostly consist of tinkered-together makeshift objects that served the artists as photo subjects, this past year has seen a series of independent sculptures. Persons who have been caught by the artist’s camera in zany actions—for example, in order to illustrate the imaginary suffering of a hypochondriac—are likewise part of the photographic interest and thus introduce a reference to performance art. In both cases the observer is presented with a staged reality, thereby calling photography self-referentially in question as a prosaic means of documenting reality.
In our exhibition, Onorato and Krebs devote themselves to the theme of society’s myths and likewise take a further step in the direction of sculptural work. In Berlin, where the artists live today, a number of monuments immortalize socialist history and the so-called heroic acts of the Red Army. This omnipresence of bronze and stone protagonists from a past era led the artists to inquire into which objects and ideas, TV celebrities and everyday heroes, lasting childhood memories and social realities could be carved in stone or cast in bronze today. Which monuments would we like to keep alive for posterity in the sense of a contemporary production of legends? Onorato and Krebs have answered this question in a tangible way by producing detailed reliefs made of acrylic resin. Furthermore, a series of photographs that focus on the subject of existing monuments as well as a video work are in reference to this theme.
Christiane Büntgen