The unexpected power and dynamics of avalanches are the curatorial point of departure for this second winter exhibition curated by Neville Wakefield and Olympia Scarry. The exhibition is featuring an international program of sculpture, performance, video and sound installations. Offsetting the ephemeral and transitive nature of these performances will be a number of sculptural and site-specific interventions created by internationally established and emerging artists. Elevation 1049—Avalanche is produced and supported by the LUMA Foundation, with additional support by the founding patrons and further private donors.
Participating artists: Allora & Calzadilla, Cecilia Bengolea, Michaël Borremans, Douglas Gordon & Morgane Tschiember, Yngve Holen, Ryoji Ikeda, Sarah Morris, Thomas Schütte, Superflex, Tatiana Trouvé & Grace Hall, Nicole Wermers. In collaboration with The Vinyl Factory
Inspired by Avalanche, the 1970s magazine closely associated with post-minimalist, post-studio conceptual artists in the United States and Europe—which also lends its name to this project—this year’s iteration relies on different interpretations of land art, ultimately replacing content about art with direct communication with the artists through their work and thought. The exhibition will be formed around two very different impulses: the first to create sculptures that like the mountains themselves will endure over time, the second to create an artist-driven event that like the snow itself is inherently unstable and subject to sudden change comprising of video, sound and performance.
The sculptural aspect of the show—associated with the structure and stability of the mountains themselves—will continue the tradition started with the 2014 iteration of Elevation 1049—Between Heaven and Hell of large scale site specific sculpture created in response the landscape of Gstaad and its surroundings. These works will remain in Gstaad and are accessible to the public for the duration of the winter season.
The anti-monumental aspect of the show—associated with the instability and temporarily transformative effects of snow—will consist of a series of artists’ performances and sound installations that will take place over the course of the opening weekend of February 3–5, 2017. Each performance will involve an intense but temporary transformation of a type of space familiar to Gstaad: whether the unbounded space of outdoors from the glacier, lake or forest or the contained interior spaces that range from a barn to the Palace Hotel to the Menuhin Festival tent.
Exhibition 3 February - 19 March 2017. Various locations, Gstaad, (Switzerland).
