sans titre (oui-non)

Markus Raetz (Büren an der Aare, Bern, 1941)
Collection : Fonds d'art contemporain de la Ville de Genève (FMAC)

Markus Raetz’s works are based on his in-depth study of the visible world. Distortions, anagrams and metamorphoses: he reveals disconcerting simulacra and deceptive tricks of vision thanks to his prodigious ability as a sculptor and a draughtsman, which has made him him one of the most accomplished Swiss artists of the 20th century. Language holds an important place in his research, and some of Raetz’s works are conceived based on words written in three dimensions, their possible interpretation always conditioned by the viewer’s movement. Tout-rien (everything-nothing), oui-non (yes-no), ceci-cela (this-that), same-same: the artist’s creations prompt the viewer to move about the space and change points of view to see the other side of the words and images. The linguistic game outlined against the sky above Place du Rhône encourages us to reconsider our relationship with the visible. It is necessary to lift your eyes quite high to see the artist’s work and notice that on the other side of the ‘oui’ is the opposite ‘non’: a simultaneous contradiction that is paradoxically impossible to observe simultaneously. The apparition of one word depends on the disappearance of the other, and between the two appears a world of abstract signs whose meaning remains impenetrable. Raetz makes us doubt the stability of the phenomena emerging before our eyes, and reminds us of the failure of all representations to capture reality, as well as the failure of vision to truly apprehend the visible.
Article commissioned by P3Art
Notice: Séverine Fromaigeat, translation: Matthew Cunningham