Zilla Leutenegger: Ring My Bell

Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich, Germany

The cycle Apartment, which passed to the Free State of Bavaria with the generous donation of the Goetz Media Collection, is now being presented for the first time in its final form at the Pinakothek der Moderne. The group of works, created between 2004 and 2007, comprises seven installations dedicated to individual rooms in an apartment: the kitchen, the bathroom, the library, or the corridor.

The rooms, which are only vaguely sketched and furnished, are inhabited by the artist's alter ego, Z, whom we observe performing unspectacular, repetitive tasks or simply doing nothing. The combination of different levels of perception and reality gives rise to subtle, atmospherically dense narratives about existence, in which lightness and melancholy meet.

 

Zilla Leutenegger transforms the exhibition hall into an apartment in which the museum visitor becomes the invited guest of the protagonist Z, present as an animated drawing. During his stay, he shares space, time and the intimacy of a home with Z and thus becomes an integral part of the installation himself. Especially for the Munich presentation, the artist has added to her works newly created projections, crystalline sculptures, and large-format prints, at the same time continuing the idea of a living work of art that evolves over time.

 

Zilla Leutenegger was born in 1968 in Zurich, where she studied and currently lives. Since 2001, her work has been featured in a number of international exhibitions; extensive solo exhibitions, each in conjunction with lavishly designed artist's books, have most recently been dedicated to her in Bremen, Zurich, Leverkusen and Burgdorf, Switzerland. Zilla Leutenegger's works are represented in international collections and museums.