Christoph Büchel
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Christoph Büchel (born in Basel, Switzerland, in 1966) is a Swiss installation artist.
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[edit] Biography
Büchel studied at the University of Art and Design, Basel, from 1986-89, at Cooper Union art school, New York in 1989-90, and at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf from 1992-1997. In 2000-2001, he was awarded a scholarship at PS1, New York. Recent solo exhibitions have included: 'Shelter' at Haus der Kunst, Munich (2002); ‘Private Territories’ at the Swiss Institute, New York (2004); 'Close Quarters' at the Kunstverein Freiburg (2004); and 'Hole' at Kunsthalle Basel (2005). In 2005, he collaborated with Gianni Motti at the Venice Biennale. He currently shows with Hauser & Wirth, Maccarone and Zwirner & Wirth. Christoph Büchel, who lives and works in Basel, is a finalist for the 2008 Hugo Boss Prize.
[edit] Work
Büchel's installations are three-dimensional renderings of interior spaces and/or situations that often convey extreme psychological mindsets, such as that of a survivalist, a homeless person, or an agoraphobe. These fictitious yet believable environments – rooms within rooms – are carefully constructed so that the institutional framework of the art museum and all reference to the gallery context are removed.
Büchel deals with the contradictions and social inequities in the ideological forces dominating society today (global capitalism, unprincipled consumption, religious conservatism, American hegemony) and attepts to satirize, demystify, and resist these forces by revealing them as constructed realities subject to change.
One of Büchel’s installations, in Los Angeles, included replicas of missiles, bombs, and other military equipment stashed away as if hidden and forgotten in a small waiting room, discovered only after walking through a series of adjacent rooms and doors. The installation will be understood as a commentary on past and present military agendas.[1]
[edit] Dispute with Mass MoCA
Since early 2007, Büchel has been ensconsed in a legal dispute with the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (commonly known as "Mass MoCA"). The museum had agreed to take on Büchel's massive project, "Training Ground for Democracy," only to balk at certain costs associated with some of the planned installations. The museum, which had already invested significantly in the exhibit, won permission in court to open it to the public without the consent of Büchel, who claims to do so would misrepresent his work. Mass MoCA's Director, Joe Thompson, decided to dismantle it instead without opening it to the public.[2]