Installation view

The Suzy Shammah Gallery presents Figure-toi, je suis ici face à moi, the first solo Italian exhibition of the Swiss artist Rémy Zaugg. Born in Courgenay in 1943, since the 1970s the artist has focused on the phenomena of perception which he states is "the fundamental expression of man". In 1982 he gained international recognition when his work Die List der Unschuld. Wahrnehmen einer Skulptur was presented at Kassel's Documenta 7. In the approximately 300-page book[1] Zaugg traces his relationship with the sculpture Six Steel Boxes by Donald Judd (1969), providing a sensitive analysis of the appearance and multiplicity of a sculpture so elementary that it could be described in just a few words. The antinomy present in the book title, The cleverness of innocence, introduces a specificity of Zaugg's work. Through a complex approach, the artist uses apparently simple paintings to reveal disarming truths. As a natural evolution of his reflections on space, the artist has interacted with the work of other artists within the context of museums[2] and has developed several projects for urban spaces, often in collaboration with the Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron[3].

Zaugg's paintings, essential objects on which his writings - enigmatic at first glance - dominate, are conceived as an experience both physical and mental. The act of viewing is stimulated by contrasting colors, or instead, hardly perceptible tonal nuances. Using a precise and accurate protocol - from the conception to the completion of the painting - the painted surface is voluntarily rendered anonymous. With an almost banal technique, Zaugg achieves the goal of minimizing the artist's actions and rendering the relationship between painting and viewer as exclusive as possible. Short phrases provoke the viewer to be aware of his own reactions and while contemplating his own self as a perceiving subject.

Rémy Zaugg conceived the exhibition Figure-toi, je suis ici face à moi, in relation to the Gallery's architectural elements, leading the viewer to lose and then re-find himself as in a labyrinth. His paintings speak to us, screaming with strong colors of the seriesDe la Cécité or whispering with barely audible tones of white and grey of the Nouveaux tableaux's series. New senses are evoked and the truth is laid bare. Figure-toi, je suis ici face à moi is also the title of the publication curated by the artist in occasion of the exhibition.

[1]R. Zaugg, Die List der Unschuld. Das Wahrnehmen einer Skulptur. 1973-1980, Stedelijk Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, 1982, out of print. La ruse de l'innocence. Chronique d'une sculpture perceptive. 1973-1980, Les presses du réel, Dijon, 1997.

[2]Exhibitions: Alberto Giacometti, Musée d'art moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris 1991; Herzog & de Meuron, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris 1995; Tableaux, Paul Klee-Zentrum, Berne, 2004-2005.

[3] Wall painting, 1999-2001, Research Center F. Hoffmann-La Roche AG, Basel; wall painting, installation with words on the ground, lighting words, 1999-2003, Fünf Höfe, Munich

N.T.53(2) [imagine-toi nous les mots nous fermons les yeux et toi homm tu ne peut plus rien t'immaginer], 1999-2000
aluminum, spray gun, silk screen, transparent paint
179,5 x 160,3 x 3,5 cm