Roman Signer, View of Exhibition (Detail), 1999, Photo: Matthias Herrmann
 
 
Roman Signer, this year's representative at the Swiss pavilion at the Venice Biennale, works with an extended concept of sculpture, in which he augments the classical three-dimensional relationship of mass and space with the fourth dimension of time and the concomitant factor of movement. His artistic development began in the '60s and '70s.
 
Object-like works stand at the beginning of Roman Signer's artistic output, reflecting the artist's continuing fascination with the forces of nature embodied by rockfall, water power and explosions. The starting point for the Swiss artist's work are carefully chosen everyday objects, such as a table, a chair, a wooden box or a bicycle and recently also small motorized vehicles that are moved, deformed or destroyed through the intentional use of a power supply.
 
The subject matter of Roman Signer's sculpture is time. Because of this, he characterizes his artistic actions as "temporal sculptures" and thus stresses the significance of the temporal dimension in his work. Time itself becomes a material, which he tests, manipulates and correlates to other materials. "Maybe I have a different idea of sculpture. It is developing gradually in the course of my actions. I have always seen myself as a sculptor. It's always about problems in space, activity in space, the course of events." (Roman Signer in conversation with Lutz Tittel, 1984, p. 83) Roman Signer wants to substantiate this claim by dividing the work up into different phases while at the same time linking them together to form a sculptural unity. Three "conditions of aggregation" are connected with one another by a procedural sequence: the work complex includes the preparation for change, with the artist exactly calculating the course of his actions. During the work process, the second phase, the opening situation is transformed by the application of external forces. The third part shows the outcome of these intentionally triggered actions. Relicts and traces of the processes that had previously taken place, such as paint splashes from exploding spray cans ("Circle", Constance on Lake Constance, 1988) or the remains of a pile of paper that flew into the air ("Paper Wall", final action of the documenta 8, Cassel, 1987) dominate this phase and form the actual installation. The "events" themselves, as Roman Signer prefers to call his actions, generally take place in private, but are documented in the form of photos, films and above all the video recordings of Aleksandra Signer.
 
 

Roman Signer, Helikopter mit blauer Spraydose, sculpture, 1997/99, Photo: Matthias Herrmann
 

Roman Signer is presenting five works under the title "Installations" in the Main Hall of the Secession. The work entitled "Helicopter with a Blue Spray Can", 1997, consists of a model helicopter flying over a wooden plank leaving behind a blue track from the spray can attached to it. In the case of "Ladder", 1999, the artists shoots through the aluminum rungs of the ladder with a revolver, so that a regular pattern of holes appear in the plaster of the wall repeating the form of the ladder. In the work known as "Night Ride", 1999, Roman Signer projects video images of a 40 minute ride of a former post vehicle from St. Gallen (where Roman Signer once lived) to Weissbad near Appenzell on a sheet Plexiglas that terminates the storage area of bright yellow Piaggio. The destination of this night ride was that patch of forest where a number of the artist's actions already took place. The tricycle transporter had already been integrated into the Swiss Pavilion at this year's Biennale, this time however it was the color blue.
 

 
Roman Signer, Nachtfahrt, video sculpture, 1999, Photo: Matthias Herrmann
 
 
Similarly to the functional construction of the Piaggio, Roman Signer is also interested in the net tubes that Christmas trees sellers use to "package" the trees they sell. He bought one of these net machines and together with 30 evergreens he exhibits one of these under the title "Fir Tree" in the Secession. In the case of "Bicycle and Wooden Plank", 1997, the artist rode the bicycle against a block of long wooden uprights so that the wheel got stuck in the wood and its negative image is discernible in the indentation on the wood.
 
The video work "End Line", 1999, consists of two monitors placed opposite one another at eye level. The artist can be seen on one screen aiming at a red band in the other monitor which eventually bursts synchronously with the ensuing shot. A video selection of Roman Signer's actions over the last eight years will be on view in the Ver Sacrum Room throughout the duration of the exhibition.
 

PUBLICATION

ROMAN SIGNER 32 pages, 7 b/w illustrations, 35 colored illustrations author: Sabine B. Vogel Secession 1999 sold out ___________________

Roman Signer was born in 1938 in Appenzell and now lives and works in St. Gallen. Selected exhibitions: "Objecte, Konstruktionen", Galerie Lock, St. Gallen (1973); small exhibition space, Künstlerhaus Hamburg (1980); "Schnelle Veränderungen", Künstlerhaus Stuttgart (1985); documenta 8, Cassel (1987); steirischer herbst (1993); Raum Aktueller Kunst, Vienna (1993); "Neue Arbeiten", Galerie Hauser & Wirth, Zurich (1997); "Alpenblick. Die zeitgenössische Kunst und das Alpine", Kunsthalle Wien (1997); "Ich war hier - I was here", The Swiss Institute, New York (1997); Swiss pavilion, 48th Biennale in Venice (1999).
 
Selected publications: Hans-Ulbrich Obrist: Roman Signer, Dübendorf, Edition Bob Gusin (1991); Konrad Bitterli, Lutz Tittel, Roland Wäspe: Roman Signer. Skulptur St. Gallen, Kunstmuseum (1993); Max Wechsler: Roman Signer. Explosion, Poschiavo/Lucerne, Edition Periferia (1995); Gerhard Mack: Roman Signer, in: Kritisches Lexikon der Gegenwartskunst, Munich, Nr. 30 (1995); Eva Sjuve: Roman Signer. Zeit und Raum in Signers Skulptur, Lund University (1999); Konrad Bitterli: Ereignis Skulptur, Roman Signer, 48th Biennale in Venice (1999).
 
 

UDO WID   CLEMENS STECHER

EXHIBITION PROGRAM 1999

For further information and photographic material please contact:
 
Tamara Schwarzmayr
Secession, Association of Visual Artists Vienna Secession
Friedrichstraße 12, 1010 Vienna
Tel: +43-1-5875307-21, Fax: +43-1-5875307-34
presse@secession.at