Paulo Wirz (*1990 in São Paulo, lives and works in Geneva and Zurich) combines meaningful materials and objects with clear formal language to create moving sculptures and installations. The French title „Hôtes“ is a polysemous word. It stands for guest and host at the same time. In contrast to homonyms, polysemes assume a common semantic context. Based on the human being and his dual existence in body and mind, Wirz developed a multi-layered installation for the presentation in the Kunst(Zeug)Haus. As in earlier works, he examines considerations of immortality and at the same time fragile perceptions of ephemerality. Very influenced not only by current world events but also by his childhood, in which he experienced the clash of different cultures and which was shaped by colonial architecture as well as local legends and myths brought by the African slaves and the native indigenous communities. Wirz combines resistant, time-lasting materials such as glass and stone with organic materials and fleeting moments. Wax figures burn slowly, fresh plants and fresh fruits rot, fragile burnt structures threaten to break. The old and the new, the natural and the artificial, the traditional and the modern attain multi-layered levels of meaning in the precise settings, which open up spaces of association and reflection beyond the visible. The viewer of the works is thrown back on his temporality, on the daily changes in body and mind.
Schönbodenstrasse 1, 8640 Rapperswil-Jona
From November 24, 2019 until February 2, 2020