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Starting in 2007, the Swiss Institute commissioned every year a Swiss artist
to redesign the Swiss flag, to be hung instead of the institute's flag for most
of the year.
Quoting Karin Kamp, 18 March 2009:
"When he became head
of the gallery in 2006, Jetzer took down the Swiss flag that hung outside and
decided to start all over again. It's like famous musicians or bands asking
other famous musicians or bands to remix their albums. It's still their track
but it's different, it's refreshed – and that's the same goal with this flag,"
Jetzer told swissinfo: He wants the flags to represent postmodern
Switzerland, which he said is "much more complex than just Heidiland. I think
the nice symbolic value of it is that we try to question Switzerland and
communicate it to the outside world," he said.
http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/culture/Swiss_flag_remixed_in_Big_Apple.html?cid=1000908
Ivan Sache, 17 September 2012
image by
Ivan Sache, 17 September 2012
Olaf Breuning (b. 1970 in
Schaffausen; first public exhibition in 1994) is a multi-disciplinary artist
(sculpture, drawing, photography, video, installation), working and living in
New York.
http://olafbreuning.tumblr.com (Homepage)
"New York
local, Swiss artist Olaf Breuning, known for his interest in odd cultural
cohesions, has designed a new version of the Swiss flag."
http://www.swissinstitute.net/exhibitions/exhibition.php?Exhibition=36
(Presentation, Swiss Institute website)
The artist added stylized feet,
hands, ears, eyes and a mouth with two teeth to the Swiss cross.
Photos:
http://www.swissinstitute.net/_db/images/1179772960-flag_web.jpg
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nubbytwiglet/1435784360/in/photostream
Ivan Sache, 17 September 2012
image by Ivan Sache, 17 September 2012
Olivier Mosset (b. 1944 in Bern) is a "non-painter" working and living in
Tucson, Arizona. Once the assistant of Jean Tinguely and Daniel Spoerri,
Mosset was a member of the short-lived BMTP group (1966–1967), together with
Daniel Buren, Michel Parmentier and Niele Toroni; BMPT refused "emollient
art" and promoted "useless painting".
"The Swiss Institute commissioned
Olivier Mosset, a 2008 Whitney Biennial artist, to re-design the Swiss flag.
Mosset merges both the red of Switzerland with that of Communism, so that the
Red's flag may hang on Broadway. On its backside, in a moment of detournement,
Mosset inverts the SI logo to be IS, a tongue in cheek reference to Guy
Debord and the International Situationists."
http://www.swissinstitute.net/exhibitions/exhibition.php?Exhibition=53
(Presentation, Swiss Institute website)
http://www.swissinstitute.net/events/past.php?Event=50
(Inauguration, Swiss Institute website)
The flag (obverse) is red with a small Swiss
cross in the lower fly.
Photos:
http://www.swissinstitute.net/_db/images/1207948973-mosset_flag.jpg
http://www.swissinstitute.net/_db/images/1204647471-olivier_mosset.jpg
Ivan Sache, 17 September 2012
image by Ivan Sache, 17 September 2012
"After the
successful appropriations of Olaf Breuning and Olivier Mosset, the Swiss
Institute commissioned Peter Regli to re-design its Swiss flag. Regli's work
often explores the interactions between institutions and public situations.
For the SI, he remixes the red and white of the Swiss flag into a two faceted
design; in effect, the Swiss cross is shattered into pieces like a puzzle.
While waving in the wind, this face may either grin or frown at you."
http://www.swissinstitute.net/exhibitions/exhibition.php?Exhibition=64
(Presentation, Swiss Institute website)
The flag appears as item No. 274 in
the Reality Hacking project ran by Peter Regli. The size of the flag is given
as 70" x 94" – 178 cm x 239 cm. The two sides of the flag are countercoloured.
http://www.realityhacking.com/project.php?id=274 (Reality Hacking website)
Photos
http://www.swissinfo.ch/media/cms/images/swissinfo/2009/03/sriimg20090310_10433739_2.jpg
http://www.realityhacking.com/images/274_01.jpg
http://www.realityhacking.com/images/274_02.jpg
http://www.realityhacking.com/images/274_03.jpg
http://www.realityhacking.com/images/274_04.jpg
http://www.artdaily.com/imagenes/2009/01/10/flag2.jpg
Ivan Sache, 17 September 2012
image by Ivan Sache, 17 September 2012
Mai-Thu Perret
(b. 1976 in Geneva from a Swiss father and a Vietnamese mother; first public
exhibition in 2000) is a multi-disciplinary artist (sculpture, painting,
video, installation, dance) living and working in Geneva. Getting her
inspiration from socialist ideology and radical feminist politics, she is one
of the chairs of the "The Crystal Frontier", a project "documenting" the
fictitious life of a women's utopian community established in the desert of
New Mexico.
http://www.hebdo.ch/artiste_ventriloque_77760_.html ("L'Hebdo",
22 October 2010)
http://www.davidkordanskygallery.com/?n=artists&aid=23&c=biography
(David Kordansky Gallery)
http://www.vogue.it/en/uomo-vogue/people/2011/05/mai-thu-perret ("Vogue",
27 May 2011)
"Two dots divided by a bar. Mai-Thu Perret's symbol is of
disarming nonchalance. It reads like a new order, fresher than any corporate
identity. The coat of arms of Swiss Institute represents artistic freedom. It
is not a substitute or icon for power (for a country, a product or even a
political party), it stands for itself. Perret developed the composition for
one of her paintings and made it into a flag."
http://www.swissinstitute.net/exhibitions/exhibition.php?Exhibition=101 –
Presentation, Swiss Institute website
Photos
http://www.swissinstitute.net/_db/img_title/1274818803-flag_2.jpg
http://www.swissinstitute.net/_db/images/1285701557-mai_thu_perret_fl.jpg
Ivan Sache, 17 September 2012