Claudia Wieser
STORIES

Dec 2nd, 2016 – Feb 24th, 2017
Studio SALES di Norberto Ruggeri, Rome

Copyright Studio SALES di Norberto Ruggeri, Rome; Sies + Höke, Düsseldorf; Photo Studio Boys
Copyright Studio SALES di Norberto Ruggeri, Rome; Sies + Höke, Düsseldorf; Photo Studio Boys
Copyright Studio SALES di Norberto Ruggeri, Rome; Sies + Höke, Düsseldorf; Photo Studio Boys
Copyright Studio SALES di Norberto Ruggeri, Rome; Sies + Höke, Düsseldorf; Photo Studio Boys
Copyright Studio SALES di Norberto Ruggeri, Rome; Sies + Höke, Düsseldorf; Photo Studio Boys
Copyright Studio SALES di Norberto Ruggeri, Rome; Sies + Höke, Düsseldorf; Photo Studio Boys

On Friday December 2nd 2016 at 7 pm Studio SALES di Norberto Ruggeri is proud to present Stories,
the second solo exhibition at the gallery by Claudia Wieser
(Freilassing, 1973, lives and works in Berlin). Claudia Wieser, who
inaugurated on November 23rd the group show Thinking Tantra at the
Drawing Room in London, is currently having a residency in Rome at the
German Academy – Casa Baldi and these months spent in Italy have given
her the opportunity to work closely with the local territory and the
institutions of our country. This experience gave birth to three
projects, of which the solo show at SALES is the first appointment,
followed by the presentation of a big installation at Fondazione Memmo
in Rome (16th December 2016), where she is preparing an intervention in
the columnated room of Palazzo Ruspoli. Then, in the first months of
2017 she will show her work at the Museo Villa Croce in Genoa, where she
will be present with a major site-specific installation that the artist
is going to realize for the grand staircase of the Museum, curated by
Ilaria Bonacossa, Director of the institution. Stories is the title of
this solo show at Studio SALES. For those who are familiar with Claudia
Wieser’s work this title might sound unusual and it introduces an
element of newness in respect of her previous exhibtions, where the fil
rouge was always traceable in a formal element common to the exhibited
works: their “being objects”, their spacial and architectural character
or the medium of the artwork, thus leaving the viewer free to deduce the
poetry and the harmonies intrinsic to the visual composition. The
exhibtion Stories is shaped in a different manner. On the walls it is
presented a new series of small coloured pencils and gold leaf drawings
expressly realized by the artist for this occasion. Next to them, there
are 5 black and white photographs: their subjects are details of a few
videostills taken from the the 1966 Gillo Pontecorvo film, The Battle of
Algiers.
It is the first time that Claudia Wieser introduces so overtly in an
exhibition a strong narrative element, thus explaining the title chosen
for the show: Stories. The insertion in the show of these 5 photographs
suggests to the viewer that the overall exhibition is somehow connected
with the present historical context, thus leaving its formal aspect to a
second reading. In the film The Battle of Algiers Claudia Wieser sees
the example of a perfect balance between the representation of a
historical fact, as well as its urgency and violence, and the
construction of a peculiar and evocative visual universe. This is the
reason why the artist chose to introduce this particular subject in her
show.The 5 photographs lead the viewer towards the rest of the
exhibition, that displays the most iconic motives in Claudia Wieser’s
practice. The big wallpaper at the entrance of the exhibtion combines
details of the photographs with partial images of palaces and marble
columns taken from architecture books, that creates a modern trompe
l’oeil and reshapes the gallery space, where the artist arranged a few
sculptures.Two podiums covered with hand-made ceramic tiles realized by
Cludai Wieser in her studio and 6 new wooden sculptures; some of them
are just painted, the others have reflcting surfaces that mirror the
viewers, the surrounding space and the other artworks in the show. These
last ones are sort of fake objects, pure compositions of elementary
forms, self-referential and with no use. Their visual combination in the
space enlivens the show, that lastly takes form in the juxtaposition of
multiple lines, echoing one another: the pure lines of the drawings and
the sculptures, the spacial lines of the wall installation and finally
the naturalistic lines of the bodies in the photographs.

About Claudia Wieser

Claudia Wieser is a Berlin-based artist who creates drawings, sculptures, wall installations and tapestries based on the principle of geometric abstraction.

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