COALMINE, the former coal cellar of the Volkarthaus Winterthur, is the internal cultural operation of the Volkart Foundation.

In the exhibition space of the Coalmine, James Bantone makes use of the barbershop as a place of social gathering and communication, but also as a ‘masculine’ defined space; becoming the starting point for his reflection on social attributions and strategies of refusal. Through an alter ego and his images, which the visitors can’t escape, the artist creates his own space of possibility, where insistence and repetition become productive methods for questioning the social conditions of the construction of identity, the perception of the self and of the Other. The exhibition is generously supported by HEAD–Genève.

• About James Bantone: graduated from Zurich University of the Arts and is currently enrolled in the Work.Master program at HEAD, Geneva. In 2019, he had a solo exhibition entitled IM LIVIN at Dynamo Project Room 13 in Zurich. Current group exhibitions include: Kiefer Hablitzel/Göhner Kunstpreis 2020, Kunsthaus Langenthal (upcoming)
• Haunted House, Swiss Institute, New York (2020)
• Plattform20, Kunsthalle Fribourg (2020)
• 5 Academies: European Photography Award, Cité internationale des Arts, Paris (2019)
• Camp Fires, UV Studios, Buenos Aires (2019)
• Goodbye Plastic, Longtang, Zurich (2019)
• Nouveaux Sacrés, Voiture 14, Marseille (2019).

Generous in-kind sponsoring by Glas + Spiegel, Niederer AG, Illnau. Further in-kind sponsoring by Remo Eyer Fine Art Print, Zürich.