Art International Zurich: Listen to Your Art

The day of the Contemporary Art Fair´s opening had come. I was looking forward to it, as all events, which don’t get cancelled these days due to Covid, are truly a joy. The event was hosted by Pulse 5 in Zurich West.

I ambled in the building on my high heels and I was surprised by the length of the queue. While I was waiting I learnt that many artists are recurrent, but this was my first time there and I was very interested as a journalist and layman. I enjoyed my eyes being fresh and unbiased, how well I did! Great conversations unfolded during the evening. I completely relied on my intuition, whenever I stopped and marvelled at a piece of art, it turned out, that the artist was special too

As my part-time job is a crazy fairy who sometimes contemplates this world with a shaking head, I had to stop at Priska Medam straight away. Her wonderland immediately sucked me in just like in Alice’s world. Butterflies, flowers and rainbow coloured tales locked under a glass plate which are created with a totally unique technique. All her pieces are an instant joy and I imagine all the female souls are originally like that.,.if they let them be. 

A few steps away I fell into another world through Aurelia Wasser, straight away into the clouds, even more like amongst angels to another parallel world’s beautiful reality, where you can touch the untouchable and the invisible is visible. Her airy creations and the light-shadow play, impressed me for long minutes.

I just had a look at Chris Van Weidmann’s pictures. Plants, animals, shapes, nice, nice I thought and I almost stepped forward, when… Why on earth is there a magnifying glass hanging on the wall? I took it off, looked into it and the magic unfolded, as every picture was fully written, as well as the wings of the grasshopper, the fingerprint and every little fluff of the feather too.

Chris Weidmann fell in love with calligraphy at the age of 10 and by now has developed it to its perfection. She is happy to bring joy to those who are receptive to art.

Not far from the calligrapher an exciting world, raw eroticism appeared on the canvases. Provocative, minimalist and a good hit. In my opinion. Unfortunately the artist was not represented, just a photo of him, which was a shame, as I felt like having a conversation with him as well. His name was Walter Diem.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then a complete DJ sound system stood in my way. Colourful, bright, loud, electronic and a bit psychedelic. Not my cup of tea at first, oh well, the psychedelic is. First I thought it’s so bad, if it needs music to get attention, but then I said sorry to myself straight away and stayed curious as a child and I touched everything.

A smiling little figure came out from behind the turntable. He was called Jean Francois Réveillard, who as it turned out is an all-round talent. His parents intended to send him to the scientific path, but he didn’t accept it and turned to art. Instead, he tried his luck in many big cities, offered his pictures until he finally found his voice and his own style, the real and the virtual world, where he mixes painting and sculpture, 3D printing, music and visual art. We can say he ended up in the scientific world after all, inserting art into the surrounding nature. 

“Elegant Chinese woman on the sofa”. It could be the title of a next painting, however it’s very much a reality.
Yan Yan builds a bridge in between her two worlds China and Switzerland with her paintings, which at first seems delicate and elegant just like her with light and airy flowers and fragile ladies, but at the second look they are kindly erotic. Round, shapely rear end in colourful tulips and white kala and female silhouette in gingko and bird of paradise flower.

If she starts speaking – not the painting, but the artist – it turns out she’s quite outspoken as well. She encourages women to take responsibility and not to be ashamed at all to desire and enjoy physical pleasures. The female body is beautiful and desirable according to women too. And so I worded it nicely and sophistically.

Now even her work “Cocktail” makes sense.

My eyes got richer by so many miracles and my soul was full of energy during this evening. Beauty can be found anywhere, however it’s not everything, but it is nice to look at it. 

• art fair
• Art International Zurich
• Aurelia Wasser
• Chris van Weidmann
• Jean Francois Réveillard
• Priska Medam
• Walter Diem
• Yan Yan