4|4<VU: Exhibition of New Work by Werner Thöni
Curator: Peter Freund
C/Pau Gargallo, 4
Sala d’Exposicions (Planta Baja)
Faculty of Fine Arts
University of Barcelona
08028 Barcelona
Opening Reception: Thursday 11 July, 2019 @19:00h
Preview exhibit will be open the week of 15 July:
Tu 13h-14h, W 13h-14h, Th 16h-17h, F 16h-17h.
Curator essay: Freund on 4|4.
For more information about the work, visit Werner Thöni’s website.
Excerpts from curator essay:
”The root of Werner Thöni’s current work presents an ethical withdrawal. From the quotidian to the political, the contemporary fetish of transparency expresses the hopeless utopianism of an administrative discourse. When communication is assessed according to its clarity – based in evidence and explanation as an ingratiating form of intellectual friendliness – any excesses of ornament, allusion, or indirection appear as hostile obfuscation. The proliferation of documentary exposés that showcase the world’s tremendous suffering through lavish photographic and testimonial evidence begins to overlap with the endless advertised promises of commodities and markets to remedy the woes of the day. The unmistakable clarity of message risks obscuring the stakes of enjoyment for those who survive even from a well-informed distance.”
”Werner Thöni’s paintings take obscurantism into their artistic embrace and propose a form of tribute that withdraws from a tragic event into the precise space of its absence. The artist makes no claim to have a relation to the reported victims but rather stipulates personal associations out of the very lack of relationship.”
Installation of UB exhibit: 4|4<VU
The “Introduction” to 4|4<VU (click to enlarge)
Statement, Booklet, and Opening Text for 4|4<VU (Werner Thöni)
Four paintings, four seats (aka 4|4): new work by Werner Thöni