Nicole Bachmann exhibits in the group show 'Talking Bodies’ at Museum für Gestaltung, Zurich, CH, running from 2 November 2023 until 25 February 2024.
Bachmann will present 'Uncertainties' (2007), a 13 minute long film that attempts to negotiate the individual and collective body from a socio-political, feminist perspective. The film shows five men sitting naked together skin to skin yet rarely interacting and not meeting the gaze of the audience. Their insecurity and vulnerability is transmitted to the viewers and thus raises the question of which bodies are granted the right to appear in public. The artist was awarded the Helvetia Art Prize in 2007 with this work, and it was last exhibited in Manifesta 11 in Zurich, CH (2016).
"Young, white, straight, healthy, and attractive … Ever since the advent of the modern illustrated poster around 1900, the human body has been a popular subject. Its representation mostly follows the rules of the market, where advertising is dominated by stereotypes of a supposedly successful life. How do such images shape our perception of ourselves and the world? And are there effective counterstrategies? In the context of current debates on gender and race, as well as on body optimization and media self-staging, the exhibition questions the body images propagated by our visual culture. Posters from the museum collection meet up with artworks and everyday objects to prompt a multifaceted examination of the body in its cultural, social, and political dimensions.
The exhibition invites viewers to engage critically with historical and contemporary representations of the body. In this context, sensitive and discriminatory images and objects are shown that have shaped our everyday culture and that continue to do so."
Further information here