Roman Gysin. Nox

Opening, Friday 27 March, 18–20 h

Herrmann Germann Contemporary is delighted to announce Nox, Roman Gysin’s first solo gallery exhibition. Gysin poses questions about the status of reality, the private and the personal. Interior design, decoration and fashion are topics that recur frequently in his practice. Various materials are applied in his works, encountering each other repeatedly in novel constellations. Accident and intention, gesture and action all play pivotal roles in staging the meeting of the individual works. We decide what we want to surround ourselves with and to wear. These choices – or to put it another way, these desires – can be defined as taste or as a form of fetish. For Gysin, in art the physical joins the intellectual; thus art is a process through which he can consider terms and simultaneously deal with them by means of tangible works. Gysin’s interest lies in the moment in which one’s perception turns into narration, and in art’s potential to treat, imitate or break with reality. His installations, largely developed on site, challenge viewers’ perception, as the artist plays with cloaking and revealing, probing conventional forms of seeing. Gysin creates a stage for consideration of the production and use of objects that are inherently both attractive and repellent. What comes first is his fascination with something, such as how materiality, an object, a phrase or a situation can provoke an emotional response. Understanding and analysis of this situation then follows, which generates a topic and ultimately a work. How objects are placed and arranged is an extension of this within Gysin’s artistic practice. Particular emphasis is given to the installation and editing of his work. Found things, such as industrial or craft objects, surface repeatedly in his exhibitions, things he displays in an unchanged state.

Roman Gysin (*1984) was born in Möhlin Switzerland. He is currently a member of the Master programme at the University of Fine Arts in Hamburg. 2011 he earned a Bachelor of Arts in Fine Arts from Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK). Selected events and exhibitions: 2014 Werk- und Atelierstipendium der Stadt Zürich, Helmhaus Zürich CH; 2013 Auswahl 13, Aargauer Kunsthaus CH; Binz39, Zürich CH; 2012 Auswahl 12, Aargauer Kunsthaus CH; Gallery Samy Abraham, Paris F; Cluj Museum, RO; 2011 COCO (Contemporary Concerns), Wien A; Prague Biennale 5, Prag CZ; 2009 New Jerseyy, Basel CH. 2014 earned a working grant of the Kanton Zürich CH. He lives and works in Zürich and Hamburg.