Vivian Suter

UNTITLED 2014 VIVIAN SUTER

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Charles Esche, Director of the Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven and curator of the 31st São Paulo Bienal about Vivian Suter in the 31st Bienal de São Paulo Guide “How to look for things that don’t exist”:

Since leaving Switzerland, in 1982, Vivian Suter’s work is closely bound up with the place where she has lived and worked since – Panajachel, Guatemala. Her studio at the Lake Atitlán was originally a coffee plantation, now overgrown with the avocado and mango trees that were ?rst introduced to protect the coffee bushes. From the upper ?oor of the studio, Suter looks out over a subtropical landscape of lakes and volcanoes, whilst downstairs the views of dense vegetation turn her experience inwards. It is this environment, with its expressive fertility, that shapes her paintings. The images Suter produces are not realistic illustrations of the land, but partly abstract contemplations of an almost mystical relationship between the human and natural elements that are constantly at play there. Often, Suter leaves her works out in the open, where they are changed by the sun, wind, rain and mud. At least two times, following the hurricanes Stan (2005) and Agatha (2010) that ravaged Guatemala, the studio was ?ooded and the canvases marked by the height of the water and mud. All these events are present in the ?nal paintings in ways that make them become diaries of their own making. This recording of process also shapes the way the works are shown in public, often without stretchers or hung from wooden racks like laundry. The acceptance of the often destructive forces of nature as part of everyday life, re?ects a philosophical approach that seeks to live with what happens, rather than to determine what must be. In this sense, Suter reaches an equilibrium in her paintings that is very far from the old modern idea of viewing art as a means of shaping nature and society. In her work, things are what they are, in a way that suggests a faith in forces beyond her understanding; or a balance that recalls older belief systems and their respect for the natural world and humanity’s place within it. — CE

2014 KUNSTHALLE BASEL

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KUNSTHALLE BASEL – Vivian Suter “intrépida” 06.April – 01.Juni 2014

SANTO CIELO – SIGO SIENDO YO

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Kunsthalle Basel

“6 Künstler aus Basel x2” – 27 de noviembre de 2011 hasta el 01 de enero 2012

SANTO CIELO – SIGO SIENDO YO.

Mirar atrás hacia la exposición de 1981 despierta muchos recuerdos y sentimientos. Fue una exposición importante, un tiempo de surgimiento con mucho entusiasmo. Una gran motivación para seguir adelante, trabajando.

Mis condiciones de vida cambiaron drásticamente en los años sucesivos. Desde 1984, vivo en Guatemala y así como mi entorno, mi trabajo experimentó muchas transformaciones.

Quería que la selección de obras para la exposición del 2011 abarcara una gama amplia. Las obras son independientes individualmente, pero están todas relacionadas entre sí en este tipo de montaje. Se originaron del trasfondo lleno de enfrentamientos y  la vida cotidiana tan rica en conflictos propia de Guatemala; por esta razón, las obras consisten tanto de colores intensos, vegetación exuberante y del interesante encuentro con una cultura distinta, como de la amenaza de catástrofes naturales, la contaminación y los conflictos en una sociedad deplorable.

Una serpiente perdida entra a mi dormitorio en plena época de lluvia y luego de liberarla, seguimos ambas nuestros caminos. También las pinturas siguen su camino, continúan su vida.

Santo cielo, sigo siendo yo.