Documentation Petra Koehle / Nicolas Vermot-Petit-Outhenin
Blue skies becoming almost black 12 monochrome photographs 120 x 120 cm, sound, music performance. The first exhibition of Koehle/Vermots works at annex 14 involves a superimposition and interpenetration of installation like assemblages, musical performance and work-in progress. Or to put it another way: different media and working methods appear as equals. These become transformed, transcribed. in an open process, leaving behind permanent and temporary visible an audible traces. As in earlier works, here too, in Blue skies becoming almost black, so the title it is possible to recognise several constantly recurring themes that are indicative of the artistic interests of Köhle/Vermot. For example, the impact of representation systems on our memory, perception and imagination, and in the same context, the significance of the media, above all of photgraphy. Except from a text by Elisabeth Gerber
Research Material, Horace-Bénédict de Saussure second scheme of the cyanometer from 1788 with 52 shades of blue (Collection Musée d’histoire des sciences, Geneva)
Research material for the work, Mt. Blanc, C-Print, 45 x 30 cm, 2015
Improvisation by Tobias von Glenck on the 12 colour-panel score in the exebition blue skies becoming almost black, Galerie Annex 14, Zurich, 2016
Exhibition view, blue skies becoming almost black, Galerie Annex 14, Zurich, 2016
Exhibition view, blue skies becoming almost black, Galerie Annex 14, Zurich, 2016
Side A Improvisation by a contrabass based on a score of 12 blue boards arranged in 4 constellations Side B Interpretation of the transcription of side A Score: Petra Koehle / Nicolas Vermot-Petit-Outhenin Contrabass: Tobias von Glenck Sound recording: Adrian von Scarpatetti Transcription: Rätus Flisch
The sound recordings were made as part of the solo exhibition blue skies becoming almost black at gallery Annex 14 in Zurich and took place on the 28.8.2016 (side A) and 2.10.2016 (side B)
Constituting a powerful method of expression, no matter what the subject is Two channel audio Installation with a 6 x 6 cm slide projection, black and white pictures out of the archive of the Aargauer Kunsthaus and a painting from Cuno Amiet (Winterlandschaft, 1907), 2014
Detail view, Constituting a powerful method of expression, no matter what the subject is, Aargauer Kunsthaus, 2014
Koehle/Vermot went to work in the Museum’s photogrphic archives, making a selection of old black-and-white reproductions of landscape paintings. These photographs, laid out in rows on a big table, now form the cornerstone of a laboratory-like arrangement which the duo have set up around the theme of colour in landscape painting and photography. Placed in a slide projector, glass filters project various colour planes and sequences on the wall, which evoke a wide range of atmospheres of light. The impression of these colours is accompanied by a sound track calmly reading extracts from the instruction manuals for the photographic filters. Excerpt from a text by Madeleine Schuppli / Yasmin Afschar, 2014
Detail view, Constituting a powerful method of expression, no matter what the subject is, script, 2014
Exhibition view, Docking station, Aargauer Kunsthaus, 2014
Exhibition view, Docking station, Aargauer Kunsthaus, 2014
It must be regarded as a forgery unless it is proven to be genuine Six channel audio installation, platform, molleton walls, 2014
Die beiden Kunstschaffenden sind durch einen Zeitungsartikel auf den Mdienskandal der gefälschten Hitler-Tagbücher des deutschen Nachrichtenmagazins Stern gestossen. (...) Auf Basis der Diskussionssendung Der Fund, die am 26.4.1983 im ZDF ausgestrahlt wurde, stellten Köhle/Vermot in einer raumgreifenden Toninstallation Textfragmente zusammen. Zitate, die dieser Sendung entstammen, wurden mit Transkripten von Interviews, Fragmenten von Pressetexten und Abschnitten aus der Fachliteratur kombiniert und zueinander in Verbindung gestellt. Wie sich die Verhältnisse zwischen Original und Fälschung, Wahrheit und Fiktion gestalten, war und ist ein Anliegen von Köhle/Vermot, und eines der ältesten Themen in der Geschichte der Kunst. Research Material, Stern magazine 18, S37, 1983, Hamburg
Excerpt from a text by Nadine Wietlisbach, 2014
Detail view, script, 2014
Exhibition view, It must be regarded as a forgery unless it is prooven to be genuine, five channel audio installation, Nidwaldner Kunstmuseum, 2014
Exhibition view, It must be regarded as a forgery unless it is prooven to be genuine, two channel video, Nidwaldner Kunstmuseum, 2014
Die Beweisführung
The Installation Die Beweisführung was part of the exbibition It must be regarded as a forgery until it is prooven to be genuine. at the Nidwaldner Kunstmuseum. The installation restaged with two black-light lamps, five sheets of paper and a photograph the proof of the forgery of the diaries.
Die Beweisführung, five sheets of paper, 50 x 70 cm
It depends entirely upon the hue of the lighting
First as performative setting then as Film set for the repeated shooting of a script. The script is based on two conversations with the photographer Rosmarie Nohr who is talking about her implication in history. It is each time translated into the language of the place and staged by local actors. So far the film has been shooted in German, French, Lithuanian and Latvian. (work in progress) Petra Köhle and Nicolas Vermot Petit-Outhenin’s installation It depends entirely upon the hue of the lighting (film set) at the Kunsthaus Baselland is the latest expression of their ongoing engagement with a key moment in history when these common qualities were particularly evident. Their use of the exhibition space as a film set subverts the tools of display, creating a thorny interweaving of the issues of choice, illumination, documentation, and responsibility. Excerpt from a text by Aoife Rosenmeyer
Research material for the group of work It depends entirely upon the hue of the lighting, digital image, New York, 2010
Exhibition view, It depends entirely upon the hue of the lighting, participative installation with scripts, table, chairs, molleton and photography, Galerie de Roussan, Paris, 2013
Detail view, first vesion of the script It depends entirely upon the hue of the lighting, 2012
Documentation pictures, It depends entirely upon the hue of the lighting, lecture-performance, Kunsthaus Baselland, 2012
Detail view, turkish vesion of the script It depends entirely upon the hue of the lighting, 2013
Documentation pictures, It depends entirely upon the hue of the lighting, lecture-performance, Siemens Sanat, Istanbul, 2013
Exhibition view, It is all in the detail, Kunsthaus Baselland, 2013
Documentation of the shooting during the exibition It is all in the detail, Kunsthaus Baselland, 2013
Video-stills, It depends entirely upon the hue of the lighting, German version, Kunsthaus Baselland, 2013
Detail view, french vesion of the script It depends entirely upon the hue of the lighting, 2013
Video-stills, It depends entirely upon the hue of the lighting, french version, Centre Pasquart, Biel / Bienne, 2013
Detail view, Estonian vesion of the script It depends entirely upon the hue of the lighting, 2014
Documentation pictures, shooting the estonian version of It depends entirely upon the hue of the lighting, Kumu, Tallinn, 2014
Documentation of the shooting during the Swiss Art Awards, Basel, 2015
Exhibition view, Story Telling, National Art Gallery, Vilnius, 2014
Führerauftrag (Shedhalle) Installation with photographs, photo lamps, newspaper and museum walls, 2010 - 2012
Die ungeheuerliche Monumentalität des ursprünglichen „Führerauftrages“ zur Dokumentation von Wand- und Deckenmalereien erforderte ein zu seiner Ausführung notwendiges und gänzlich funktional gedachtes Provisorium: Das Gerüst. Die Künstler bauten die auf der Fotografie von 1945 sichtbare Holzkonstruktion nach und imitierten reduziert den durch zwei Fotolampen auf Stativen hervorgerufenen Schatten. Doch ist ihre Konstruktion bewusst so labil gestaltet, dass sie sich jeglicher Funktionalität verweigert. Ihr gewissermaßen dreidimensional skizziertes Gerüst dürfte nach statischen Überlegungen gar nicht existieren, und so wird die Frage aufgeworfen, inwiefern Aneignung durch Wiederholung und Verschiebung eines formalen Aspekts von Geschichte möglich ist. Mit der Installation Führerauftrag entsteht zwischen Ähnlichkeit und Differenz ein Raum in dem nicht mehr eindeutig ist, wer im Auftrag von wem, welchen Auftrag ausführt. Excerpt from a text by Katharina Pilz
Ohne Titel, C-Print, mounted behind glass, variable size, 2013 (Photographed by Rosmarie Nohr, Schloss Rüdigsdorf, 1942)
Exhibition view, Führerauftrag, Shedhalle, Zurich, 2010
Führerauftrag (Helmhaus) Installation with photographs, photo lamps, newspaper and museum walls, 2010 - 2012
Eine Art Bühne oder Podest-Fragmente, zwei grelle Scheinwerfer und Schatten auf der Wand, eine Zeitung mit diversen Bildern, eine Fotografie, auf der sich eine Person auf einer Leiter stehend in einem repräsentativen Schloss-Raum befindet: Die Arbeit besteht aus heterogenen Teilen, die unter dem Titel „Führerauftrag“ anspielungsreich aber keineswegs auflösbar zu wirken beginnen. Die Bühne ist vorhanden und beleuchtet, aber nur ein Schatten agiert. Die matten Architekturbilder der Zeitung finden sich mit der farbigen Barockarchitektur des Fotos konfrontiert, die Person auf der Leiter ist abgewandt. Von 1943-1945 lancierte Adolf Hitler als „Führerauftrag“ eine Fotokampagne, die gefährdete, historisch und künstlerisch wertvolle Malereien und Raumausstattungen dokumentieren sollte. Ein umfassendes Farbdiaarchiv mitteleuropäischer Wand- und Deckenmalerei wichtiger Bauwerke wurde erstellt – die letzten, oft die einzigen farbigen Ansichten bedeutender Kunstwerke vor ihrer Zerstörung im Zweiten Weltkrieg. Excerpt from a text by Brita Polzer, 2013
Ohne Titel, C-Print, mounted behind glass, variable size, 2013 (Photographed by Rosmarie Nohr, Schloss Rüdigsdorf, 1942)
Exhibition view, Führerauftrag, Installation with photograph, movable wall, double ladder, two photo lamps and a pile of newspapers, Helmhaus, Zurich, 2010
Newspaper related to the body of work Führerauftrag Concept and design: Koehle/Vermot self-publisher, Zurich 2012
Detail view, Helmhaus, Zürich, 2010
Führerauftrag (Museum für Moderne Kunst)
Installation with photographs, photo lamps, newspaper and museum walls, 2010 - 2012 The projects of the artist duo Petra Elena Köhle and Nicolas Vermot Petit-Outhenin are distinguished by attempts to recreate history; they revolve around the pursuit and reconstruction of traces of historical moments. In stagelike installations, Köhle / Vermot evoke these measures materially and formally as spatial constructions. Already on the defensive, Hitler had ordered photographs to be taken of immovable cultural assets, for example, murals, so that they would at least be visually protected against loss. The artist duo’s installations clearly have to do with the act of selective history writing and a rereading of its conditions and consequences. Their analytical works constantly weave at least four different planes together: the past setting of the original event and the current site of the exhibition, the event’s historical origins, and the perspective from which it is appropriated today. Excerpt from a text by Holger Kube-Ventura, 2012
Detail view, Frankfurter Auszug, Frankfurt, 2012
Exhibition view, Führerauftrag, Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt, 2012
Provisory Landscape
Provisory Landscape is an ongoing photopgraphic work analysing provisory constructions.
Provisory Landscape, c-print, 50 x 70 cm (framed), 2010
Provisory Landscape I, inkjet print, 90 x 70 cm (framed), 2010
Provisory Landscape II, inkjet print, 90 x 70 cm (framed), 2010
Monumentalfilm
Wall installation, c-print and inkjet print on mdf, 180 x 300 cm, 2012 In the way that Barthes links photography to death, catastrophe and disappearing, the history of WWII interweaves with that of the development of color photography, with fears of destruction and disappearing. Indeed photography appears as a “technology of war” of a certain cultural hegemony. Chemical photography is a tragic space inhabited by death – and digital photography promises an even faster dispersal without material traces. In their project, the artists investigate how state apparatuses and technological dispositifs, ideological reasoning, processes of identification, selection, and elimination, create a system of measuring, which at the same time, like every scale, imposes a standardization of perception and a homogeneity in which the microfascism of everday life and a system of mobilization interact with each other. Excerpt from a text by Dimitrina Sevova, 2012
Installation view, Making History, Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt, 2012
Color Measurement System
Object, 9 monochrome photographs 90 x 130 cm on dibond, oak tree legs, 2013 On the ground floor, large rectangular monochrome photographs displaying the primary and complementary colours evoke the objective systems of colour measurement employed by photographers – thereby wielding authority despite their supposed neutrality. The monochromes also testify to the fact that the primaryand complementary colours crop up far more often than any other words during the course of the conversations, while constituting a photographic constant across time. Nearby, a mural consisting of photographic emulsion developed directly on the wall depicts three arresting still lives made by Nohr during her studies, suggesting that photography might have become a placeholder for everything she was unable to do or say under the Nazi regime. Excerpt from a text by Rahma Khazam, 2013
Exibition view, pro positions, NAR Gallery, Biel, 2014
Exhibition view, Color Measurement System as part of a wall installation, Galerie de Roussan, Paris, 2013
Untitled (still life)
Installation with bambu mat, drill cylinder, glas plates, slide projectors, photographic emulsion on wall, 2011 The image still life (hat with perfume bottle), photographed by Rosmarie Nohr, is starting point for a three-dimensional reconstruction which fractionalizes the connections between military purposes, the development of photography and the perception of colors.
Untitled (still life with Mouson Lavendel and Hut), c-print, 50 x 70cm (framed), 2013
Exhibition view, untitled (still life), Vebikus, Schaffhausen, 2011
Exhibition view, untitled (still life), Verein Bildender KünstlerInnen, Schaffhausen, 2011
Kunst-LuftschutzMassnahme (David)
Installation, photo projection on glass, chalk drawing, slabs of concrete, sandbags and wooden planks, 2011-2012
Detail view, Kunstluftschutz-Massnahme (Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte, München, 1940)
It was in the academy in Florence, where statues, in particular Michelangelo’s “David”, were protected by concrete formwork. The picture leaves the impression that “grand art” had been put in an artificial coma. (...) The artists approach this outdated “vision of a rescue” like psychoanalysts, trying to interpret the quality of single parts as hubs of hidden meanings. They laid out parts on the floor of the Shedhalle reconstructing single parts of the picture: the slabs of concrete, showing the weight of the material, the wooden boards with which the rotundas were originally recreated, the circles on the floor that traced their position in the room of the academy. Whatever was vertical and strained upwards in the picture, is now shown in pieces and horizontal. In between, precariously slanted, the fragile glass picture, illuminated by the light of the 21st century. Excerpt from a text by Yvonne Volkart, 2011
Exhibition view, Kunst-Luftschutz-Massnahme (David), Palais de Tokyo, Paris, 2012
Exercice d’Isolation (Announcement System) The project Exercice d’Isolation by Petra Köhle and Nicolas Vermot Petit-Outhenin is the continuation of their long-term interest in the topic of archives and their art research on how technologies and more specifically the medium of photography relates to the process of archiving and how it in itself imposes certain rules in archiving practices in its mechanisms of selection. (...) They install two loudspeakers, part of the Announcement System which is part of the social apparatuses of Sinop, in one of the rooms of the old juvenile detention center of Sinop, in order to turn them partly into sculptural objects, which through their isolation become “pure objects.” In this case the artists isolate not only the object, but imprison the sound, the sound of silence, and on the other they disperse it in the exhibition space by attaching their sculpture to the Announcement System of Sinop. This system broadcasts live. Excerpt from a text by Dimitrina Sevova, 2012
Research material for the group of work Exercice d‘isolation Digital image, Sinop, Turkey, 2012
Digital image, Exercice d‘isolation (Announcement System), research material, Sinop, Turkey, 2012
Note for the loudspeaker system in Sinop, Exercice d‘isolation (Annoucement System), Research material, 2012
Exhibition view, Sinop Biennial, Turkey, 2012 (The loudspeaker was connected to the local loudspeaker system and broadcasted the announcements.)
Exercice d’Isolation (Les Archives Nationales)
Installation with Photography, molleton and wood, 2012 Le travail Exercice d’Isolation opère un renversement, la photographie démasquant les dispositifs qui la conditionnent. Les spots photographiés sont ceux qui illuminent chaque soir le bâtiment des Archives Nationales de Paris. Le fond de tissus noir également présenté au GoetheInstitut devient une sculpture. Faire-valoir sans mobile, il attend, comme une toile d’araignée, un objet à valoriser et neutraliser. Excerpt from a text by Hélène Meisel
Exercice d’isolation (Les Archives Nationales), C-print, 130 x 90 cm, 2012
Exhibition view, Exercice d’isolation (Les Archives Nationales), Goethe-Institut, Paris, 2012
Existing place with statue for the aviator Martin who was killed in an aircraft accident in 1936.
Imaginary axis of reflection
Sculpture with granit plates, bricks, gravel, 2011 This sculpture was devloped for the exhibition Môtiers 2011 – Art en plein air. The sculpture consist in copying an existing monument, done for the aviator Martin who was killed in an aircraft accident in 1936.
Mirroring
Sketch for the sculpture Place Polygone, 2011
Place Polygone
Exhibition view, Place Polygone, Art en plein air, Môtiers, 2011
La pièce sacrée / Oktober`83 / Tour 762 Anders als die offiziellen Sammlungen historischer Museen, zeichnet sich das Archiv des Hans Diez durch eine Fülle von alltäglichen Aufzeichnungen wie Telefon- und Einkaufslisten, Postkarten oder Ferienfotos aus. Und trotz seiner Verstrickung in die grossen historischen Ereignisse der jüngeren Geschichte, erscheint das Leben von Hans Diez vor allem erst mal unglaublich “normal”. (...) Die beiden Rauminstallationen, Tour 762 und Oktober ’83, bezeichnen dabei unterschiedliche Formen der Aneignung von vorgefundenem Material. Im Sommer 1964 reist Hans Diez mit Globus Tours nach Capri und steigt dort im Hotel Esperia ab. 2008 wiederholen Köhle & Vermot Petit-Outenin die Tour 762. In der Installation vermischt sich Archivmaterial mit Aufnahmen aus der Gegenwart, so geht beispielsweise die Tonspur der Installation auf ein Gespräch zurück, das die Künstlerin und der Künstler mit dem Enkel des damaligen Hotelbesitzers geführt haben. Excerpt from a text by Andrea Thal, 2008 Exhibition view, la pièce sacrée, storage boxes, painting, les complices, Zurich, 2008
Detail view, La pièce sacrée - Oktober 83, receipts on paper, Les complices, Zurich, 2008
Exhibition view, La pièce sacrée, participatory installation, Les complices, Zurich, 2008
Exhibition view, Oktober 83 as part of the group exhibition Welt in Sicht, Ausstellungsraum Klingental, Basel, 2009
Ja bitte? Die Gästebücher... Ja, die gibt es seit vielen Jahren. Meiner Familie gehörte das erste Hotel hier. Wir waren politisch an allem auf der Insel beteiligt. (kurze pause) Das von 1964? müsste irgendwo sein, vielleicht im Lager. Wie hiess der Mann? Hans Diez? Wie kommt es, dass sie sich für ihn interessieren? (Pause) Ob ich das kenne? Ja, das ist hier. (Pause) Das ist unten am Strand. (Pause) Beim Leuchtturm. (Pause) Da stand früher eines unserer Hotels, es hiess Fortuna Palace bis wir es verkauften. Heute hat es einen anderen Namen. (Pause) Schwer zu sagen wo das ist, im östlichen Teil, aber es ist bestimmt auf dieser Insel. (Pause) Diese Pflanzen wachsen hier überall. Hier hat er vielleicht einen Spaziergang in den nördlichen Teil gemacht. (Pause) Das ist nicht hier. Das ist auf dem Festland. In der Stadt. Aber das ist nicht heute. Sind diese Bilder von Ihnen? (Pause) Das auch? (Pause) Das kenne ich nicht. Gedenken sie länger hier zu bleiben? Ein wunderbarer Ort nicht wahr? Aussergewöhnlich sagen sie? Interessant, dieses Wort habe ich schon lange nicht mehr gehört. (Pause) Im Winter ist es auf der Insel leer und ruhig. Still.
Excerpt from the script, Tour 762, audio-play, 7‘30“
There, where I should have been yesterday. I am here today. Am 6. März 2006 begann das Künstlerpaar Petra Elena Köhle und Nicolas Vermot Petit-Outhenin ein Experiment: Unabhängig voneinander reisten beide nach Palermo, wo sie – ohne den Aufenthaltsort des anderen zu kennen – bis zum Ende des Monats blieben. Ziel ihrer Versuchsanordnung war, herauszufinden wie wahrscheinlich es ist, sich in einer Großstadt wie Palermo zufällig zu begegnen. View of Palermo by night, There where I should have been yesterday. I am here today. C-Print, size variable, 2006
Excerpt from a text by Jan Wenzel Camera Austria, 2014
Map of the waypoints registered by GPS, There where I should have been yesterday. I am here today., inkjet-print, size variable, 2006 Red dots: Petra Köhle / Blue dots: Nicolas Vermot-Petit-Outhenin
Exhibition view, There where I should have been yesterday. I am here today, Kunsthaus Glarus, 2007
Detail view, There where I should have been yesterday. I am here today, GPS record of March 7th and 21st
Exhibition view, There where I should have been yesterday. I am here today, Kunsthaus Glarus, 2007
Exhibition view, Giants. Souvenirs, Academy of Arts, Vilnius, 2014
Documentation picture, Lecture Simultanée, lecture performance based on work There, where I should have been yesterday. I am here today. Piano Nobile, Geneva, 2012
Pictures out of the Slideshow, Lecture Simultanée, lecture performance based on the work There, where I should have been yesterday. I am here today.
Albert’s Guesthouse
Business card of Albert‘s Guesthouse
One guesthouse, two employees, six rooms, an absent boss, guests who come and go. Those are the basic conditions of a test set-up within the microcosm of the Cambodian city “Sihanoukville”, where in November 2004 the two artists took over the management of the small hotel “Alberts guesthouse” for eleven days. Parallel to the work they produced a protocol that lists check-ins and check-outs, compiles guests’ file cards, which contain, besides room number, price, name and nationality, a short personal portrait. Daily notes, photos, documents, everything that seems important, even things the guests collected themselves were added to the protocol. (...) The best part of the protocol is written in English, the sort of English spoken on holiday, which guests as well as staff try to get their tongues around, only to provoke no end of misunderstandings. An isolated sentence, thus liberated, has a huge effect and sometimes says more about the predetermined break zone in one’s life, about colonialism, about the relationship between men and women, about desires and hopes, than a complete story. Excerpt from a text by Sarah Schmidt, 2010
Serendipity beach, C-Print, Shihanukville, Cambodia, 2007
Exhibition view, Albert‘s Guesthouse - Serendipity beach, installation with fan, audio-play, Kunstbunker Hintereingang, Nurnberg 2008
Exhibition view, Albert‘s Guesthouse, installation with projection, fan and audio-play, Istituto Svizzero, Rom, 2011
Exhibition view, Albert‘s Guesthouse, installation with fan, audio-play, Galerie Madonna Fust, Bern, 2010
Detail view, Albert‘s Guesthouse, script, 2010
Ereignisse 63 paper models appear as a witness of our collective visual memory and recall fundamental events in world history.
Above: Resaerch Material, atomb bomb Bottom: Detail view, Ereignisse, installation with paper models
Detail view, Ereignisse, installation with paper models
Exhibition view, Ereignisse, Installation with paper models, Helmhaus, Zurich, 2011
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