“Pure Life Begins Now” reads the white neon lettering that shines from the white wall at the entrance to the exhibition “Odyssee” by the artist duo huber.huber. It’s the tagline of the food company Nestlé’s global advertising campaign for its Pure Life bottled water brand and it forms the prelude to the exhibition, which is dedicated to the topic of water on various levels.

Water is the basis of all life; access to clean water is anchored in human rights. Water is fought for, marketed and sold. The power of water is indisputably gigantic. Too much or too little leads to collapse. With their exhibition “Odyssee”, the artists huber.huber examine in different ways the role of humans in relation to water scarcity in a society living in abundance.

“Water has always been a topic that has interested us. Not water as a medium, but the handling of water, so to speak: What does water mean to people. What are the stories going on around water. This is something that interested us even before this exhibition, and in this exhibition we were able to condense it and we could tell different stories.”
(Reto and Markus Huber)

In this video, we have a look at the exhibition and speak with the curator Claudia Waldner and the artists Reto and Markus Huber about the concept of the show, the works on display, and what the science fiction film “2001: A Space Odyssey” has to do with it.

huber.huber: Odyssee. Solo exhibition at Kunsthaus Zofingen. Exhibition walkthrough and interview with curator Claudia Waldner and Reto and Markus Huber. Zofingen (Switzerland), March 3, 2021.

–– Right-click (Mac: ctrl-click) this link to download Quicktime video file.