Beni Bischof

The universe of images created by Bischof is inspired by the banality of day-to-day life, which the artist translates into a very direct visual language, following a media strategy akin to advertising. Using plays on words, wit and symbols, Bischof brings the visitor face to face with paradoxical works, born of spontaneous thoughts on topical political and social themes, and presented in bizarre and comical ways.

The videos presented here are compositions of images drawn not only from the world of fashion, advertisements, and cheap, glossy and gossip magazines, but also from the film industry, the world of television and above all the internet – an endless source of textual and visual quotations. On occasion of the exhibition at MASI, the artist has also created the new video entitled Intensity Intensifies, in which he has composed a series of gifs recently created on social media.

BIOGRAFIE

The works of Swiss artist Beni Bischof (b. 1976) have been displayed in many solo and group exhibitions, and have received several awards, including this year Landis & Gyr fellowship, the recent Jurypreis Skulpturen–Biennale Weiertal in Winterthur (2019); the Manor Award St Gallen (2015). And the Swiss Art Awards (2009, 2010). Among his noteworthy exhibitions are the solo show at the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam (2016) and the group shows at MUDAC, Lausanne (2018); the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, US (2018); Hamburger Bahnhof – Museum für Gegenwart, Berlin (2016); and the Kunst Halle, St. Gallen (2010). Bischof’s production also includes the self-published art magazine Lasermagazin (since 2005) and the publication of the artist’s book Psychobuch in 2014, Bambi in 2017, Texte 1, 2, 3, 4 (Edition Patrick Frey, 2015, 2016, 2018, 2020) and Rambo (Nieves Publishing, 2016).