ZURICH, SWITZERLAND.- The Migros Museum presents “Terrorealismus Kendell Geers,” on view through August 10, 2003. In his work Kendell Geers constructs simple, poetic situations in which a destabilising and often violent moment is inherent, and which in their direct confrontation challenge observers to position themselves, to “relate themselves” to them. The room-filling installations are characterised equally by antagonism and the attempt to acquire the conceptual tradition of the modern.

Since the end of the 1980s, Kendell Geers has been working on a linking of conceptual and political approaches, but without the self-conception of a political artist. Politics here must be seen as everyday politics, denoting those decisions that are made day by day in order to live and survive. Politics is both an element of his art and of his life, and it is his answer to the cold conceptualism of the 1970s.

The Migros Museum for Contemporary Art in Zurich is showing the work TERROREALISM, which has been specially designed for the museum. TERROREALISM is cell, prison and temple, all at the same time. The outer façade, pierced by pieces of broken glass, blocks any view of the interior – it is impossible to fathom whether knowledge of this interior signifies a threat or protection. Only upon entering the room do three neon tubes become visible, forming the words BORDER, DANGER and TERROR. A physical error causes a semantic short-circuit which allows new levels of meaning to arise, which designates and simultaneously negates cause and effect. The same subtle sense of humour which transforms the fragments-concrete combination into a room-filling sculpture, also characterises the new word constellation ORDER, ANGER and ERROR. That too is a possible answer to systems and their attributions.

This exhibition is part of the project “NEXT FLAG – an African sniper project for European spaces“

Cooperation partners: Migros Museum for Contemporary Art, Zurich – B.P.S.22 Espace de Création Contemporaine, Charleroi - Casino Luxembourg Forum d’Art Contemporain, Luxembourg - Palais de Tokyo Site de création contemporaine, Paris - Espacio C Arte Contemporáneo, Camargo Cantabria - Württembergischer Kunstverein, Stuttgart - Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Westfalen, Düsseldorf.