Christoph Rütimann

Lines run through Christoph Rütimann's (*1955 in Zurich) entire artistic universe. His work ranges from performances to sound, text, photo and video works to classical means of expression such as drawing, painting and sculpture. A reference to scientific questions is always perceptible in his art, which Rütimann approaches in a playful manner and expands the supposed rationality of scientific discourse by the dimension of the imponderable. Despite all the diversity, constants can be identified: the performative approach, the play with chance or gravity - and not least the line as a two- or three-dimensional demarcation. The latter, laid out in the extensive work of drawings, experiences an expansion in the Handrails, which are realised as part of the work complex Walking Countries in the most diverse places: Rütimann guides the camera along railings, architectural edges and lines that lend themselves as camera tracks. The video sequences cast an idiosyncratic view of the world from the perspective of the railing, the building - including furniture. Often the camera rail is specially designed for a film project. Here, the shifting of the point of view and the close-up view of the handrail, which sets the pace of the video sequences, rhythmises them and at the same time calls the performative act into consciousness, are surprising.

Christoph Rütimann's work is recognised internationally, as evidenced by his spectacular contribution to the 1993 Venice Biennale. The Kunst Museum Winterthur has invited the artist to realise a video work in view of the opening of the Villa Flora and the merger of the three exhibition venues. Together with other works by the artist, it will be presented in dialogue with the collection.

Curator: Konrad Bitterli