March 2022 — Visual Arts

From 14-21 March 2022, Swiss artist Marc Bauer will be in Kinshasa, DR Congo on a research trip for the first stage of a collaborative project he is developing for the Congo Biennale in September 2022.

The trip will afford Marc the opportunity to meet Kin ArtStudio and Congo Biennale curator Vitshois Mwilambwe and begin his research of local LGBTI+ issues, histories and memories. Marc hopes to meet Scaly Kep’na, the founder of Jeunialissime, an LGBT+ advocacy group in Kinshasa, who he is interested in collaborating with.

In his work, Marc explores the interconnected themes of history, memory, gender and identity and the connection between violence, religion and sexuality. Marc often collaborates with philosophers, authors, scientists or other specialists. He assembles collected material into pictorial narratives in which historical and fictional elements are combined. In Kinshasa, Marc will be researching local LGBTI+ issues and history and hopes to interview people in the LGBTI+ community to hear personal stories and memories from pre colonisation to today.

The second leg of the journey will take place in September 2022 when Marc will finalise his research, make the work for the biennial in situ and install the exhibition.

BIOGRAPHY

Marc Bauer (b.1975 Geneva) lives and works in Berlin and Zurich. He studied at the Ecole Supérieure d’Arts Visuels Genève (now HEAD) and at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten in Amsterdam. He is tenured lecturer at the Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK). Marc works primarily in drawing, as well as animated film, ceramics, oil painting, installation and sculpture. has shown his works in numerous solo exhibitions in Switzerland and abroad, notably at the Berlinische Galerie (2020); Istituto Svizzero, Milan (2020); Drawing Room, London (2019); Museum Folkwang, Essen (2014); Centre Culturel Suisse, Paris (2013); Kunstmuseum St. Gallen (2011); MAMCO, Geneva (2010). And notable group exhibitions in Guggenheim Museum Bilbao (2020); Migros Museum, Zurich (2019); Kunsthaus Zurich (2019); Biennale of Sydney (2018); S.M.A.K., Ghent (2015); Albertina Museum, Vienna (2015); Liverpool Biennial (2014). His works are in major public and private collections, including the Kunsthaus, Zürich; Berlinische Galerie; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Museum Folkwang, Essen; Migros Museum, Zurich; Kunstmuseum St. Gallen and the Nouveau Musée National de Monaco. In 2001, 2005 and 2006 he was awarded the Swiss Art Award. Marc is the laureate of the Prix Meret Oppenheim / the Swiss Grand Award for Art 2020. He is the winner of the GASAG Kunstpreis 2020 that resulted in a solo exhibition at the Berlinische Galerie in Berlin. Marc was a fellow at Istituto Svizzero in 2005 – 2006.