From psychedelic retinal overload to Cold Wave elegiac monuments, and from hard-edged optimism to a Punk rock theater of sentiments, each one of the Kunsthalle’s seven rooms attempts create a distinct space for painting that is first and foremost designed to be experienced physically.
The Old, the New, the Different is neither a picture of a given time nor a map of a particular place. Rather, it builds on a number of ongoing trans-generational as well as transatlantic lines of flight – which I first became aware of, living in New York twenty years ago, browsing through the catalogues of a number of painting shows a local curator and critic, Robert Nickas, had organized in Switzerland.
A break from our current dystopian mood, in the words of Steven Parrino: «Radicality comes from content and not necessarily form. The forms are radical in memory by way of continuing the once radical, through extensions of its history. The avant-garde leaves a wake and, through mannerist force, continues forward. Even on the run, we sometimes look over our shoulders, approaching art with intuition rather than strategy. Art of this kind is more cult than culture.»
– Fabrice Stroun