Kerim Seiler (born 1974 in Bern) is a Swiss artist.
Education
Seiler began his studies in 1991 by completing a pre-course for the
Kunstgewerbeschule
A Kunstgewerbeschule (English: ''School of Arts and Crafts'' or S''chool of Applied Arts'') was a type of vocational arts school that existed in German-speaking countries from the mid-19th century. The term Werkkunstschule was also used for thes ...
Zürich
Zürich () is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zürich. It is located in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zürich. As of January 2020, the municipality has 43 ...
. Between 1993 and '95 he completed the degree course "Média Mixtes" at the Ecole Supérieure d’Art Visuel Genève. From 1997 to 2002, under the tutelage of
Prof. Bernhard Johannes Blume, he continued his education at the
Hochschule für bildende Künste Hamburg
The ''Hochschule für bildende Künste Hamburg (HFBK Hamburg)'' is the University of Fine Arts of Hamburg. It dates to 1767, when it was called the ''Hamburger Gewerbeschule''; later it became known as ''Landeskunstschule Hamburg''. The main build ...
. In 2011 he was awarded a
Master of Advanced Studies
A Master of Advanced Studies or Master of Advanced Study (MAS, M.A.S., or MASt) is a postgraduate degree awarded in various countries. Master of Advanced Studies programs may be non-consecutive programs tailored for "specific groups of working pro ...
degree in Architecture at
ETH Zürich
(colloquially)
, former_name = eidgenössische polytechnische Schule
, image = ETHZ.JPG
, image_size =
, established =
, type = Public
, budget = CHF 1.896 billion (2021)
, rector = Günther Dissertori
, president = Joël Mesot
, ac ...
.
Career
Early work of Kerim Seiler is characterized by two-dimensional, life-size paintings of ordinary city objects, such as park benches and ticket machines. He diversified into larger works, such as colorful and inflatable molecule sculptures, a 250-meter-long permanent neon light installation at
Zürich's central train station and his vaguely habitable brick structure ''Gulliver'' in
Pfungen
Pfungen is a municipality in the district of Winterthur in the canton of Zürich in Switzerland.
History
Pfungen is first mentioned in 993 as ''Funginga''.
Geography
Pfungen has an area of . Of this area, 32.3% is used for agricultural purpose ...
(2009). Appearing to maintain a classical view of harmony, Seiler has said that space and structure are key elements in his work. Elsewhere it is written, "With the alphabet lettering paradigm in mind, Kerim Seiler has fashioned a non-alphabet system that revolves around a letter that cannot be deployed in words, its existence merely inferred by other letters. It may fluidly receive or reject ornament, be layered or cloaked, snap open and release, or serve as a crouching mechanism."
Seiler's acclaimed 2014 habitable sculpture ''Relay (Situationist Space Program)'', exhibited at
abc—art berlin contemporary, is a replica of his 2010 habitable sculpture of the same title on permanent display in
Johannesburg
Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Demo ...
, of which an earlier (2012) replica had been exhibited on the roof of Hotel Crystal in
St. Moritz and at Grieder Contemporary in Zürich. Though his large-scale works often entail municipal (e.g., his 2014 building facade ''Iris'' in
Schlieren
Schlieren ( ; , ) are optical inhomogeneities in transparent media that are not necessarily visible to the human eye. Schlieren physics developed out of the need to produce high-quality lenses devoid of such inhomogeneities. These inhomogeneitie ...
, Switzerland) or ecclesiastical (e.g., his prominent 2015 neon sculpture ''DIMETHYLTRYPTAMIN'' at the
Roman Catholic Diocese / erstwhile Prince-Bishopric of Würzburg) collaboration, they are sometimes executed covertly and/or via
agricultural machinery
Agricultural machinery relates to the mechanical structures and devices used in farming or other agriculture. There are many types of such equipment, from hand tools and power tools to tractors and the countless kinds of farm implements that the ...
.
In 2016 Seiler created "a neon sign in the shape of bones", and, according to
Urs Bühler, a neon installation entitled "Space Knot" proceeding along 300 linear meters beneath the
Swiss National Museum
The Swiss National Museum (german: Landesmuseum)—part of the ''Musée Suisse Group'', itself affiliated with the Federal Office of Culture, is located in the city of Zurich, Switzerland's largest city, next to the Hauptbahnhof.
The museum bui ...
ceiling, "like a ghost presiding over the museum, curved shapes giving an impression of
Harald Naegeli
Harald Naegeli (born 4 December 1939) is a Switzerland, Swiss artist best known as the "Sprayer of Zurich" after the graffiti he sprayed in the late 1970s onto walls and buildings in Zürich, Switzerland.
The "Sprayer of Zürich"
Naegeli has ...
spray cans transubstantiated into colorful illumination."
Seiler's comprehensive practice—installation, performance, sculpture, painting, drawing—has sought to dismantle boundaries between art, science and community. His energy and inventiveness, and consistently visceral, visually arresting work, have established him as a leading Swiss artist of his generation. His 3-volume compendium of writings, drawings and photographs ''Kerim in the Sky with Seiler'' was published in 2012 by Nieves.
Seiler's work is exhibited worldwide, including in
Moscow
Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...
,
Cairo
Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metro ...
, Zürich,
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
, Berlin,
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
,
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
and Johannesburg. He is represented by Grieder Contemporary in Berlin and Zürich, where he is also a key strategist in the rehabilitation of
Cabaret Voltaire. In 2016 Seiler produced two enormous public sculptures for the ceremonial opening of the world's longest and deepest traffic tunnel, the
NEAT Gotthard Base Tunnel in Switzerland. In 2020 Seiler collaborated with Fuhrimann Hächler Architekten on a villa in
Küsnacht
Küsnacht is a municipality in the district of Meilen in the canton of Zurich in Switzerland.
History
Küsnacht is first mentioned in 1188 as ''de Cussenacho''.
Earliest findings of settlement date back to the stone age. There are also findi ...
.
[Raderschad, K.]
"50er-Jahre-Villa in Küsnacht: So wohnt das Künstler-Paar der Galerie Grieder Contemporary"
''NZZ Bellevue'', March 28, 2020.
Notes
References
External links
*
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Seiler, Kerim
1974 births
People from the canton of Bern
Artists from Bern
Swiss artists
Swiss architects
Artists from Berlin
Architects from Berlin
Living people