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The Arts Intel Report

Heidi Bucher: Lanzarote

An installation view of “Heidi Bucher: Lanzarote.”

July 6 – Aug 19, 2023
74-18, Yulgok-ro 3-gil Jongno-gu, Seoul

Heidi Bucher gripped the untethered fabric on the floor of her parents’ old master bedroom in Winterthur, Switzerland, and leaned back, using her body weight to heave the remaining cloth from the wooden walls. The finished work lay bunched in a heap on the floor, branded with an impression of the old house. A ghostly rendering, it was the Swiss artist’s first major Raumhaut (Room Skin), later titled Herrenzimmer (1977–79). Guided by themes of memory and transformation, Bucher engages in a form of archaeology that uses latex to create casts of historical objects and architectural elements. Another Raumhaut, from 1987, Grande Albergo Brissago (Eingangsportal), is a material echo of the ornate entry doors to a small Swiss hotel in the village of Brissago, where European intelligentsia convened during W.W. II. The exhibition “Lanzarote” presents the artist’s most significant works, including the debut of audiovisual documentation and archival materials. —Nyla Gilstrap

Photo: © Swiss Institute Contemporary Art, New York