Jan Vorisek
I give back to the landscape, the vomits of experience (2023-2024)
In an interview for 032c with Claire Koron Elat this year, Jan Vorisek mentioned exploring whether misunderstanding can become a medium. His new work, commissioned and re-fabricated in relation to the proportions of the building, touches upon this idea through intentional mistranslation. The pieces are delivered from China and their intended use is to serve as concrete molds, whereas Jan assembles them into pillars and treats them as objects whose purpose doesn’t begin, but rather ends, there. Differing from previous editions of this series in that they push through the ceiling of the Kramgasse building in parallel lines, the pillars concur with the existing support structures and create an ambience that facilitates suspense and expectation.
photography: courtesy of Lukowa Group, authors: Claude Barrault, Julian Blum
Jan Vorisek biography
an Vorisek (b. 1987 in Basel), lives and works in Zürich. In 2018, he completed his Master’s degree in Fine Art at the ZHdK in Zürich. Vorisek’s practice spans sculpture, installation, performance and sound. He draws inspiration from experimental music and incorporates found objects, industrial materials, and site-specific elements into his works in an effort to interrogate commodity fetishism and examine hierarchies of power. His work blurs the lines between what is made, found, copied, and sampled, emphasising the dynamic nature of identity in a continuously changing world.
His recent solo shows include Edge, Hour, Substance, 13th Manor Art Prize of the Canton of Zurich, Kunstmuseum Winterthur, (2023), Music for shipping containers, Arcadia Missa, London (2022), No sun, Swiss Institute, New York (2021), Collapse Poem at Kunsthaus Glarus, Glarus (2020); Crisis Instrument at Observation Society presented by Bottom Space, Guangzhou (2018); and Total Fragmented Darkness at Hard Hat, Geneva (2017). Recent group exhibitions include Don’t Worry, This Will All Be Over Soon, Galerie Gregor Staiger, Milan (2023), Crowd Control, High Art with Arcadia Missa, Arles (2022); Techno, Museion, Bolzano (2021); Blind Date, Kunsthalle Basel, Basel (2019); and Its Urgent, Curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist, Luma Westbau, Zürich (2019).