Backrooms is a programme of events, readings, performances, screenings, concerts and other artistic formats in the Löwenbräu building in Zürich, Switzerland, organized by Otto Bonnen. The Löwenbräukunst offers various architectural and social spaces that Backrooms engages with. The current exhibition in the basement of Kunsthalle Zürich is titled ‘Files’ and features ring binders by the artists Daniel Dawson, Stefano Faoro, Gritli Faulhaber, Peter Fend, Ada Friedman, Dani Leder, Maggie Lee, Megan Plunkett, Kate Sansom, Jen Shear, Richard Sides, Lise Soskolne, and Adelhyd van Bender. In this video, Otto Bonnen talks about the concept of the ‘Backrooms’ project and the current exhibition, and shows as an example the ring binder of the artist Maggie Lee, who had a solo exhibition at the Kunsthalle Zürich this spring. After the opening, the space will be open by appointment only.
Backrooms: Files / Kunsthalle Zürich. Vernissage, September 27, 2024.
— Right-click (Mac: ctrl-click) this link to download Quicktime video file.
Exhibition text:
Some artists use the ring binder as a format more closely associated with office work than with work in the studio. The few examples illustrate an artistic potential that exerts its appeal despite — or perhaps precisely because of — the limitations of the ring binder format. Due to their bureaucratic rigidity, ring binders encourage a critical engagement with their connotation of normative systems, while at the same time being particularly accessible, as our society is so familiar with their use. Contrary to their supposed austerity, they can, due to their ease of handling, quick binding and various sleeves and forms also offer a playful field or encourage the adaptation of repetitive patterns for personal sorting methods and entirely individual logics. The exhibition sheds light on various materialisations of artistic thinking by presenting objects that emerge from studio practice and operate within the ring binder format, inspired by the contemplative act of collecting and leafing through, as a source for artistic work.
A whisper behind a hand, a hatched plan, an embarrassing slip of the tongue, unexpected inspiration: these happen in the gaps, corridors and brief interactions on the way to other activities. In these liminal spaces — places as well as states — emerge zones of reverie with a psychological and social threshold character. They are marginal areas of ambiguous limbo where back doors are left open and free spaces unconstrained, thus generating potential for experimentation as well as for failure.
Under the title Backrooms, a programme of events, readings, performances, screenings, concerts and other artistic formats will take place, organised by Otto Bonnen. The Löwenbräukunst offers various architectural and social spaces that Backrooms will engage with. Hidden, unoccupied spaces and informal break out rooms provide physical and structural spaces as well as collaborations that go beyond our walls with collectives or extra-institutional locations.
