Marcel Hörler

We can never know what we will find – when we dig a hole... Earth is a filter, an archive, provides livelihoods, and is an arena for interspecies exchange. Interdependencies, or mutual dependencies, are intrinsic to the earth. Thus Performing Soil is dedicated to those moments of tension in this terrain that arise apart from conventional scientific methods. They assume that projects can be scaled, i.e. that they can function on a small scale as well as on a large one, but they disregard the fact that the actors can change through encounters. The idea to Performing Soil comes from the artists Silke kleine Kalvelage, Jan Georg Glöckner and the curator/cultural mediator Marcel Hörler. Over a period of three months, surrounded by a nature preserve, they collaborated with dancers, artists, craftspeople, and scientists Lisa Lee Benjamin, Marisa Mayer, Xaver Ammann, Kay Zhang, Brigham Baker, Titilayo Adebayo, Reut Nahum, and Rosa Zettl to shape a massive globe. The globe was - in the context of the first exhibition at Kunstraum parat - together with three radio shows, the photo documentation and other small-format soil exhibits presented to the public and auctioned off.

The exhibition Passagen was dedicated to transitions as constant companions of people. It took place from September 10 to October 2, 2021 in the church St. Jakob in Zurich. The exhibition focused on the question of how transitions can be coped, working with photography, storytelling and arrangements of personal things. The sacral building functioned as an exhibition and reflection space, as a sound body and as a place of critical questioning. The basis for Passagen was formed by several meetings of the eight protagonists Beat Schwab, Chaowei Arakawa, Emanuel Hohl, Edwin Arsenio Ramirez Garcia, Heidi Stamm, Maria Hardt, Noah Di Bettschen and Yeter Tayet, as well as individual sound recordings, which came together in an expansive audio installation. The idea and concept were developed by Marcel Hörler and photographer Sabina Bösch, following an invitation from About Us! and the Reformed Church of Zurich. In addition, the following people were involved in the project: Julian Zehnder (audio), Maria Muster (textile), Maria Peskina (graphic design), neo seefried (text), Gilles Smrkovsky (editing). Part of the program was also an audience discussion, a sound performance between Kay Zhang, Nuriia Khasenova, Léo Collin (KIT) and Sacha Rüegg and a performance by Elischa Heller.

Seemingly Unfinished shed light on the beauty of the thin line that lies between the unfinished and the finished. The Roman author Pliny the Elder had already started reflecting on the concept of the unfinishedness, in his Natural History Book 35, by pointing out that unfinished works were highly appreciated because they offered more explicit information on the artists’ creative process and techniques. The exhibition presented seven works from paintings, sculptures, installations to embroidery by Fabio Guida, Laetitia Pascalin, Patrick Ostrowsky, Pascal Sidler, Sara Lavelle, Mickry 3 and Andrea Vera Wenger and allowed to investigate the artists’ intentions and their receptions on the audience as well as discuss social, psychological and philosophical aspects with the realm of contemporary art. The exhibition was divided in three successive groups (On Transparency, Under Construction and The Absence of Painting), that allowed to focus on different ways of questioning its topic. All combined granted the audience tools to decipher the complexity of an unfinished aesthetic in completed artworks. Seemingly Unfinished took place from 12th March to 2nd April 2021 at Kulturfolger in Zürich and was curated by Marcel Hörler and Michael Almeida.

Hox is a magazine for critical reflections on human-animal relations. Various artistic text and image contributions explore the question of what a shared future of humans and other animals should look like and what obstacles, fears and opportunities can be in this relationship. In October 2020, Hox No. 1 was published on an organic farm in the periphery of the Canton of Zurich by the publishers - Valérie Hug, Jakob Lienhard and Marcel Hörler. The magazine brings together artistic, aesthetic as well as analytical and scientific image and text contributions, combines in editorial terms call for papers and curation and sets a focus per issue. A complexly layered construct of subtopics is placed within an experimental design framework that allows the content to speak for itself. At the forefront of Hox is: the process of publishing, the process of designing, the process of understanding.

Transformations have always been part of cultural practices that fascinate and disturb at the same time. A living being that suddenly stops, apparently destroys itself and rises again as a completely new creature. From the privileged deities of the pre-Christian polytheistic religions to fantastic hybrid beings - half human, half animal - from legends, fairy tales and fantasy to complex metamorphosis images and stories in literature, the relationship between humans and animals is a frequently treated topic. In the wake of recent technological and medical advances, which make it possible to change bodies and exchange organs between humans and animals, or to breed human cells in animals, questions about a common future of humans and animals a new urgency. For the exhibition Vee (May 23rd to October 3rd, 2020) Badel/Sarbach, Benjamin Egger, Ernestyna Orlowska, Fridolin Schoch, Ina Weise and Patrick Ostrowsky made installative, sculptural and performative interventions on the agricultural farm Hof Blum in Samstagern. Performances, screenings and shows by Daniela Ehrsam, Ivy Monteiro, Maya Rochat and Soya The Cow accompanied the opening and the closing. Community, Body and Transformation were among the thematic focuses of the exhibition. Furthermore the exhibition was extended by farm talks with guests Antoine F. Goetschel, Viviane Ehrensberger, Jacques Fuchs and Hans Preisig and mimicry workshops, designed by Julia Wäckerlin and Pia Schwarz. Vee was created in collaboration with Jakob Lienhard, Valérie Hug and Martin Blum.

Sustainability is no longer just a question of ecological circumstances such as climate change, geographical particularities or agricultural technologies but a question of production and consumption. Between April 20th and September 7th, 2019, the Plateaux Festival invited artists to discuss sustainability issues and solutions within the framework of the ecological farm Froh Ussicht in Samstagern, in the periphery of Zurich. In addition, guests were invited to take up the theme of the festival with a Carte Blanche, in order tackle curated performances, film evenings, installations and actions with unexpected ideas. The festival was designed by Marcel Hörler and Mateo Chacon-Pino. Design and code: Lydia Perrot and Lisa Li. Following an invitation by Martin Blum. The art mediation program was designed by Seline Fülscher. With artistic contributions by Artist Organizations International, Aurélie Strumans, Carina Erdmann & Anna Kindermann, Johanna Bruckner, Johanna Kotlaris, Martina Mächler, Matthew C. Wilson, Nino Baumgartner, San Keller, Simon Würsten Marin, Thomas Geiger and Yael Wicki. Guests included Bergkrautsyndikat, Kunsthaus Aussersihl, Kunst Du, Wagner & Friends with Carlos Fernández and Violeta Burckhard Razeto.

Dogo Residenz für Neue Kunst is a dedicated to artistic development and the mediation and production of contemporary art. Opened in 2019 and located at the Rathaus für Kultur in Lichtensteig, artists get the opportunity to develop professionally. Artistic processes, as well as the resulting works are documented in the public online archive. Dogo organizes events together with the artists, such as discussions or experimental mediation formats. A further component of Dogo is the mediation of art. Dogo Kunstschule organizes a wide range of workshops and projects. The year is rounded off by the Dogo Totale, the group exhibition with selected works which have been produced during the year. Dogo was initiated by Hanes Sturzenegger, Julia Wäckerlin, Marcel Hörler, Maura Kressig and Sirkka Ammann.

While the tourist takes the gondola lift to the summit and a refugee leaves his home, the digital nomad works somewhere on his boat. Never before has mobility manifested itself in so many ways as it does today. Spatial, social and virtual mobility has become the basic principle of a global and networked world. Anyone who is mobile is receptive - open to something new, perhaps better. Mobility also demands mental and physical mobility from people. On the one hand, it breaks down social structures and, on the other, reinforces the perception of existing, unequal preconditions. The broad concept of mobility was the focus of Weiter. As part of Weiter, Christian Eberhard, Collectif Chuglu, Damiano Curschellas, Gisa Frank, Lino Bally, Flurina Brügger, Iris Brodbeck, Marc Jenny, Matthias Rüegg and Robin Michel developed works en route. From September 9th to 23rd, 2017 they presented their works at three different traffic junctions in the lower, middle and upper Toggenburg. The exhibition was a co-production between Kunsthalle[n] Toggenburg and Arthur Junior.

Imagine Rhythm used the expressiveness of dancing and filmmaking to overcome cultural and linguistic obstacles. A group of deaf and hearing dancers from Armenia, Switzerland and Germany created a dance performance during ten days together with the choreographers Melanie Alexander and Hayk Hobosyan and showed it in public space in the city of Zurich in August 2017. Through a self-empowering approach, the dancers could create their own body movements, make use of their skills and transform it into a contemporary dance performance. The whole activity was filmed on site by a group of filmmakers in collaboration with documentary filmmaker, producer Seg Kirakossian in order to document the learning process. The project was designed also for engaging the participants in social life and giving them knowledge on how they can implement social initiatives in the future. Besides the dance workshop, a group discussion was held, with a focus on the problems and needs of people with hearing problems to promote awareness about the Convention of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The project was designed by Marcel Hörler and Seg Kirakossian in collaboration between Subkult and Doctor Cinema NGO.

Catherine Xu, Samuel Koch, Nina Emge, Lucie Biloshytskyy, James Stephen Wright, Domingo Chaves, Edmée Laurin, Fridolin Schoch and Martina Mächler received six orange envelopes on 9 July 2016. Six thousand Swiss francs in thousand notes - the most valuable banknote in the world. The artists had the task of spending all the money on Obere Bahnhofstrasse, the shopping street of Wil. The works that were presented to the public from July 30th to August 13th, 2016 and were created from the purchased goods. Shopping dealt with a theme that has always moved society and the art world. We want it, we love it and we do it. From young to old. Whether conscious, ecological or wasteful. We shop, we choose and shopping should be fun, or not?! That's why the cross-media art project treated consumption as a act of life and asked questions. Questions about the commodity art, artistic work and investment in general. The artistic processes were documented and part of the exhibition, which was initiated by Arthur Junior and the City of Wil in collaboration with the graphic design studio Badesaison.