Pedro Wirz: Entropy Crib

We are excited to inaugurate our new gallery space at Rämistrasse 5 with two solo exhibitions by Elza Sile and Pedro Wirz. The exhibitions are not only framed by the new gallery’s location in the city, but also by the architectural space in a state of transformation. Our new space, unveils its first shows in an unfinished form, acting as a fitting backdrop for the metamorphic processes intrinsic to the works of both artists showcased. In a manner reminiscent of the found objects and hallmark of their work, the building itself becomes another stratum in the amalgamation of materials that they explore.

 

Constructed in 1911, the gallery's interior bares its true essence and material structure. Concealed behind the walls, the cable lines divulge the concealed infrastructure of the space, revealing the architecture in its naked form. As we enter the ground floor, Elza Sile's large-scale aluminum plates appear as extensions of this composite of mineral material, which, despite its meticulous arrangement, pulsates with a three-dimensional organic life of their own.

 

Beneath our feet a different landscape arises. Pedro Wirz’s works, unlike Sile’s, appeals to organic forms from nature embedding them not only to the basement of the gallery’s architecture, but to the earth on top of which its forms are erected and stem from.

 

The round, circular shaped wall objects, covered in layers of soft material, carefully envelop these fragile time capsules, while telling the story of human intervention responsible for the present critical state of life. Their morphology is charged with the powerful symbolism of the egg form as representation of change, fertility, and transformation. The handprints, that like flower petals surround these objects, not only reiterate the tactile energy always present in Wirz’s works, but also mirror the hands of his creator, while simultaneously questioning his interference.

 

Wrapped in soft material, the monolith shaped cases with soft edges are wrapped with scraps of textile and acrylic paint, which compose landscape images through collage and mixture. Pedro’s wall objects reveal protruding glass elements that break their two-dimensionality through anatomical forms — biological sensory organs that reinforce the tactile and sensorial nature of his works. The eye-shaped globes that peek through their surface both project and receive visual stimuli. These inorganic forms with human-like traces bring agency to the objects, transforming Wirz’s sculptures into living artifacts. His work uses materials to explore the processes and dynamics of living organisms through their agency, understanding growth and waste as part of the dynamism, experienced both through objects and organisms.

 

With a limited timeframe, this is the only exhibition that will take place in the gallery under its present form, giving the artists and the spectator the chance to experience their work in a space in conversion, where their works are able to shine under the temporary light casted by material bodies in a state of metamorphosis. – Violeta Burckhardt