Raw Still Life, 2015 - 2016
curated by Sophie Brunner

RAW STILL LIFE is a collaboration on ceramics with atelier Rohling in Bern, Switzerland. Rohling ia located in the PROGR Center for Cultural Production in Bern and gives space to artistic energy, which due to lack of recognition or financial means, finds itself offside. It is a place that allows artists with mental and psychological impairments to work professionally on their artistic endeavours. Since 2012, it has operated as a „social sculpture“. Together with six artists we created several ceramic objects with focus on the dinner party as a social phenomenon. The project recounts the symbolic value of inclusion that the ritual of dinner represents in our society, and the possibility of being invited to it, truly participating in the social fabric that surrounds them, is still a strong desire for all those who remain on the margins. However, the objects produced do not respect the courtesy and other rules of table manners but burst in with their primitive and necessary style and with their load of existential themes that are harsh but pressing for the artists and, ultimately, perhaps for everyone. By recreating various dining table scenarios that can be seen as microcosms of society. The work was part of a Ceramic Installation at Creaviva Zentrum Paul Klee, Bern – Switzerland and was exhibited in several different places.

Artists that worked on the ceramic project Raw Still Life: Clemens Wild, Pia Heim, Heinz Lauener, David Jacot, Marco Glauser, Jürg Zesiger.

Pictures by Anja Schori and Stéphanie Baechler