Silvan Kälin: Homo Viator

Artist
Silvan Kälin

Curator
Giovanna Bragaglia

Place and Date
OnCurating Project Space, Zürich, Switzerland, 19.Oct - 9.Nov 2018

Curatorial Text

Homo Viator is a being who walks sometimes on deliberate paths, sometimes on mysterious paths, and that he does it sometimes deliberately, sometimes spontaneously; and that, in the majority of cases, he walks partially deliberately and partially spontaneously, on partially deliberate and partially spontaneous paths.

Vilém Flusser

“Silvan Kälin: Homo Viator” is a solo exhibition of the Swiss artist that brings together two new artworks and a selection of artist publication. In the documentary video installation "Lá e cá" ​[There and Here] the artist presents a research in process with statements from foreigners about their living in different realities, where Brazil can mean there, and Europe here, or vice versa. The pencil drawn animation "Goes and Goes On" raises up imaginative aspects of a being that never ceases its movement, that always goes forward through different steps and paces and accordingly to rhythms.

As a result of a life in between Brazil and Switzerland, his production raises up questions about a cross-cultural contamination and the transitions, through aspects of a dismantled geography.

Lá e Cá [There and Here], 2018
HD Video, 2-channel, color, 25 min
Participants: Adams Raphael Gonçalves Alves, Camila Ferreira, Claudio Kóvacic, Douglas de Lima Lemos, Itamara Hasler, Silvia Karina Cáceres Wolany, Valerie Cronier
Astistant on set and for edition: Clara Khan

The starting point of the video installation ​"Lá e cá" [There and Here] is an ongoing research that gathers statements from immigrants and from people with the intention of emigrating. They speak about their living in different realities, from different perspectives, where Brazil can mean there, and Europe here, or vice versa. Their words stem from their own perceived experiences, in comparison to their origin, to their reflections and ideas, as well as to their subjective reasons and motivations. Presented in a two-channel installation, as a conversation that never concludes, the interlocutors are placed in front of a black background that intends to hide any information of location. Furthermore, as part of the concept, the names of the places are not mentioned. Instead, an abstract map is enhanced by the words "lá" and "cá" ("there" and "here") articulated by the participants, inviting the observers to reflect about their own experiences.

Goes and Goes On, 2018
Animation, sound, 13 min
Drums: Christian Bucher
Recording: Andreas Glauser

Through the simple pencil drawn animation the artist creates a metaphor of the incomprehensible forces of life and nature. A drawing of a circle becomes a sphere figure in continuum movement, in dialogue with cyclical percussion rhythms, the figure never ceases, going on and on, sometimes according to the sound, and other times out of rhythms. Nonetheless, always walking forward, while stumbling and trampling, spinning and spinning, where the efforts are measured by a space without a sky and by a time without a sense of depth.