Moser und Schwinger

Swiss artists Frédéric Moser and Philippe Schwinger are guests of the artists-in-residence laboratory program of the Centre for Contemporary Art at Ujazdowski Castle. Moser and Schwinger graduated from the Higher School for Visual Arts in Geneva. Since then they have received a number of awards, including the Eidgenössische Preise für freie Kunst (1998, 1999, 2000 r.) and the Providentii: Young Art 2000 award. In 2001 they received a six-month fellowship at the Akademie Schloss Solitude in Stuttgart. They have been living and working in Berlin since 2002 as winners of a scholarship contest organized by the Swiss government. In 2004 they will represent Switzerland at the Sao Paulo Art Biennale.

The artists most frequently produce video installations. In their works, they combine the skills and knowledge they acquired at the Higher School for Visual Arts in Geneva with their experiences from an independent, Lausanne-based theatre organization of which they are members. Their use of various means of expression, including installation, theatre and film, places them in the realm between the visual and stage arts. Moser and Schwinger build their works from components of today?s mass culture, ranging from historical milestones to popular films. Placing these in unusual contexts, the artists reveal both timeless significance and completely new, customarily hidden meanings.

In Warsaw, the Swiss artists are pursuing a project titled Revival Paradise, based on Jim Jarmusch?s film Stranger than Paradise, first released more than twenty years ago. The project will consist of a video installation and an artistic manifestation spanning five days and consisting of a series of interventions in public space.

The artists have already visited Poland on two occasions. During previous visits to the CCA, Moser and Schwinger cast their film and selected a Warsaw-based composer who will create the soundtrack for their film. The search for project participants took the form of an open casting call, which drew both amateurs and professionals. The artists were intent on working with people with developed personalities and broad interests. Work on the project will take the form of a mutual exchange of stimuli and inspirations. The artists also toured Warsaw and a significant stretch of the Polish seashore in search of the shooting locations for Revival Paradise.

The third stage of the project will take place at the turn of February and March. It will be devoted in its entirety to shooting the film. The artists will focus on working with actors Kacper Kuszewski, Robert Wrzosek, and Joanna Laskowska, and will supervise the recording of the soundtrack, which will be created by Adam Fa?kiewicz, a young and highly talented composer.

In Revival Paradise Frédéric Moser and Philippe Schwinger will seek to explore various aspects of emigration and show the changes that Poles have endured in the twenty years between the release of Jarmusch?s film and the production of their own version. The artists will grant their own film the form of an interactive, multi-media artistic manifesto that will venture out into public space in a search for the broadest possible audience.

Pressetext

Frédéric Moser und Philippe Schwinger - Revival Paradise
artist-in-residence laboratory programme [a-i-r laboratory]
Projektpräsentation: October 2004
Kurator: Ika Sienkiewicz-Nowacka

mit Frederic Moser / Philippe Schwinger