Better Safe Than Sorry

A violent storm raged over the Gotthard massif the night of 24/25 August 1987. The ensuing floods destroyed houses, streets, train lines, and farmland. Luckily, no people were harmed, but in the lower Reuss valley alone, more than 900 farm animals drowned. Over the past thirty years, severe storms have swept over not only Switzerland, but the entire Alpine region in short succession—with enormous masses of water that gradually increase the likelihood of regular natural disasters.

The artist duo Pascale Wiedemann and Daniel Mettler, aka wiedemann/mettler, took up the story of Noah’s ark. As the Book of Genesis tells us, the great deluge came to obliterate” humanity’s moral corruption. However, God bestowed mercy on Noah and asked him to build an ark that would save humankind and wildlife alike. wiedemann/mettler’s interpretation of this symbolic narrative comes under the titlebetter safe than sorry and presents the topic of safety in all its ambivalence. Staging and orchestration are core elements of their spatial and sculptural concept. For example, they create an installation with a menagerie of 160 taxidermic animals from a private collection in Thurgau, placing them all over the House of Art Uri and its inner courtyard.

References to art history are deliberately incorporated into wiedemann/mettler’s installation (cf. appropriation art) and are charged with associations from personal experience. The objects themselves often appear eerie; the familiar—similar to surreal practices—is alienated, illusory, and new meanings have been teased out of these objects that shake our beliefs in their very foundations. wiedemann/mettler’s oeuvre is not restricted to one specific medium or topic. The duo creates sculptures, installations, objects, and photographs from a multitude of different materials. In the case of their first institutional solo exhibition at the House of Art Uri, that means creating a whole environment.

Barbara Zurcher

Director/Curator, House of Art Uri

This new book documents the installation better safe than sorry at House of Art Uri (on display June to August 2014) and other recent work by wiedemann/mettler. Essays are also contributed by Swiss novelist Ruth Schweikert and historian Philippe Sarasin.