“History Park” is the title of an extensive series of works by Christian Vetter, with which he has made a prominent appearance on the Swiss art scene since 2002. Lonely mountain peaks, stone monuments, mysterious caves, abandoned hunting lodges, stage-like forest clearings, but also interiors with cosy fireplaces form the slightly antiquated inventory of the deserted paintings. Not even in the beginning does the artist attempt to conceal the obvious vacuum through virtuoso painting. It is this peculiar emptiness that is as fascinating as it is irritating.
With “Disappearing Eye”, a comprehensive monographic publication on his current work is now appearing - on the occasion of the exhibition of the same name at the Kunstmuseum St. Gallen and the award of the Manor Art Prize 2008.
Christian Vetter’s work thrives on contrasts and subtle interspaces. These become motifs in his window and wall paintings and at the same time refer to essential questions about painting: light as the basis and object of the picture on the one hand and the relationship between the real space of the viewer and the imaginary space of the picture on the other. His paintings and installations live from the collective memory of media models.
Christian Vetter’s art deals with the media-influenced imagery of the present and the longings revealed in it. This worldliness is combined with a questioning of artistic genres and their traditions, extending them through the refined use of new media such as photography, film and video. At the same time, the provisional effect of his installations and walk-in pictures undermines any claim to validity and points to a fundamental scepticism towards traditional concepts of work, which characterises his formally distanced, intellectually provocative work as a highly individual, complex questioning of the world.
The present publication brings together – as a brochure in 16 thematically and medially arranged leaves – the work of recent years in the media of installation, painting, and photography, and through the interlocking sequences it shows the sometimes surprising correspondence of the different groups of works, which have hitherto been perceived primarily as separate. The text contributions by Andreas Baur and Konrad Bitterli as well as a conversation between Stefanie Kasper and the artist are – each on its own strip of paper – inserted between the picture series and invite the viewer to investigate further, a completely enjoyable and stimulating undertaking.