Tobias Madison (born 1985) is a
Swiss art
Switzerland lies at the crossroads of several major European cultures. Three of the continent's major languages, German, French and Italian, are national languages of Switzerland, along with Romansh, spoken by a small minority. Therefore, Sw ...
ist, known for his
multidisciplinary conceptual art,
moving image work, and
performance art. His work frequently uses video, photography, text and installation to probe the economy of interpersonal relations in mediated realities. Madison currently lives and works in
New York City.
Biography
Tobias Madison was born in 1985 in
Basel, Switzerland.
In 2011 he received a B.F.A. degree from
Zurich University of the Arts (ZHDK).
Since 2015, he has taught in the graduate program (work.master) of the
Geneva University of Art and Design
Geneva University of Art and Design (HEAD), () is a European art and design school founded in 2006, and belonging to the network of the University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Western Switzerland
The University of Applied Sciences and Art ...
(Haute école d'art et de design or HEAD).
Career
Madison's work has had
solo exhibition
A solo show or solo exhibition is an exhibition of the work of only one artist. The artwork may be paintings, drawings, etchings, collage, sculpture, or photography. The creator of any artistic technique may be the subject of a solo show. Other s ...
s at the
Swiss Institute
Swiss Institute / Contemporary Art New York (SI) is an independent non-profit contemporary art organization founded in 1986. SI is located at 38 St Marks Pl, the corner of Second Avenue and St Marks Place in the East Village neighborhood of Manhatt ...
(2010) in
New York City,
Haus Konstruktiv (2010) in Zurich, Kunstverein Munich (2010),
Kunsthalle Zürich (2013), the Power Station in Dallas (with Emanuel Rossetti and Stefan Tcherepnin, 2013),
Kestnergesellschaft (2016) in
Hanover, Germany,
and
MoMA PS1 in New York (with Matthew Lutz-Kinoy, 2016).
His work is in many museum collections including the
Kunsthaus Zurich, the
Carnegie Museum of Art in
Pittsburgh, and the
Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City.
New Jerseyy
Madison co-founded the exhibition space ''New Jerseyy'' in
Basel in 2008, together with curator Daniel Baumann, artist Emanuel Rossetti, and graphic designer Dan Solbach.
''New Jerseyy's'' program was focused both on a local and an international audience and presented solo exhibitions of
Carissa Rodriguez, DAS INSTITUT (
Kerstin Brätsch and Adele Roder), Ei Arakawa,
Anne Imhof,
Ida Ekblad, and Stefan Tcherepnin.
Experimental exhibition formats for ''New Jerseyy'' included a 2008 temporary boxing gym with
John Armleder and his student collective Team 404
and a 2009 MFA degree thesis show of students of the Graphic Design Department of the
Yale University School of Art.
Collaborations
In 2012, Madison co-curated an exhibition with Emanuel Rossetti at the
Kunsthalle Bern that focused on collaborative practices and artistic networks that are spun between
Tbilisi,
New York City,
Tokyo, and
Berlin. The French art-historian Mélanie Mermod curated the section ''APN Research'' あぷん with images by the media collective
Jikken Kōbō
Jikken Kōbō (実験工房, official English name: "Experimental Workshop") was one of the first avant-garde artist collectives active in postwar Japan. It was founded in Tokyo in 1951 by a group of artists working in various media. Until its dis ...
(experimental workshop) that were published weekly between 1953 and 1954 in the
Asahi Graph
, also known as ''The Asahi Picture News'', was a Japanese weekly pictorial magazine that ran from 1923 until 2000.
''Asahi Graph'' started on 25 January 1923 as a daily feature from Asahi Shinbunsha (publisher of ''Asahi Shimbun'' and soon also ...
(Japanese: アサヒグラフ Asahi Gurafu).
In 2013, Madison collaborated with artist Emanuel Rossetti and artist and composer Stefan Tcherepnin on the exhibition ''Drip Event'' at the
Power Station in
Dallas. The project is documented in the Solar Lice LP, which was recorded at
ISSUE Project Room.
In 2015, Madison developed an adaptation of
Shuji Terayama's 1967 play La ''Marie-Vison'' together with artist Matthew Lutz-Kinoy and theater director Barbara Weber for the
Kunsthalle Zurich. In 2016 the play was further developed by Madison and Lutz-Kinoy for a commission by
MoMA PS1, titled ''Rotten Wood, the Dripping Word: Shuji Terayama's Kengawa No Mari''.
Film
In 2016, Madison produced a remake of Shuji Terayama's 1971 film ''
Emperor Tomato Ketchup'', with a group of kindergarteners from
Hannover, Germany.
The resulting film, ''Das Blut, Im Fruchtfleisch Gerinnend Beim Birnenbiss'' (2016), is an exploration of the child's mind and the projections that it is exposed to.
In 2018, Madison shot ''O Vermelho do Meio-Dia'' in
Sao Paulo, Brazil with members of the Queer activist group MEXA in the months leading up to the election of far-right president
Jair Bolsonaro
Jair Messias Bolsonaro (; born 21 March 1955) is a Brazilian politician and retired military officer who has been the 38th president of Brazil since 1 January 2019. He was elected in 2018 as a member of the Social Liberal Party, which he turn ...
. The film premiered in November 2018 at the Biennale d'Image en Mouvement in
Geneva. After its premiere Madison pulled the film from other festivals to continue to work on it.
Bibliography
*Madison, Tobias (2015). ''NO; NO; H E P''. Zurich: JRP Ringier.
*Madison, Tobias; Rossetti, Emanuel; Tcherepnin, Stefan (2014). ''Solar Lice''. Dallas: The Power Station.
*Madison, Tobias (2011). ''Drawings''. Zurich: 978-3-906011.ch.
References
External links
Tobias Madisonon ContemporaryArtDaily.com
Tobias Madisonon ArtNet.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Madison, Tobias
1985 births
Living people
Swiss contemporary artists
Zurich University of the Arts alumni
Academic staff of Geneva University of Art and Design