Tag Archives: Switzerland

Daniel Gottin

This month we will be visiting Sleeper to see the work of Switzerland-based artist Daniel Gottin. For the past twenty years, Gottin has focused on making temporary, site-specific interventions that examine the subjective nature of perception. His installations, always consisting of common industrial materials, such as tape, carpet, and paint, playfully respond to the specific characteristics of an architectural site and activate the viewers relationship to it.

Gottin has made the work in direct response to Sleeper’s one-room exhibition space, which is located in the basement of the offices of Reiach and Hall Architects. Sleeper was founded in 2000 by visual artist Alan Johnston and architect Neil Gillespie, to bring together a rich diversity of national and international art and as a way to continue a dialogue between contemporary art and architecture. Previous artists have included Bruce Nauman, Lesley Foxcrot, Charles Avery, Douglas Gordon, Alan Charlton, Martina Klein, Adam Barker-Mill, Thomas A Clark and Roger Ackling.

We will have the pleasure of the company of Neil Gillespie, Director of Reiach and Hall Architects, who will join us in discussions about the influence of contemporary art on their architecture and about their collaborations with the artists.

Neil Gillespie’s architectural projects include The Pier Arts Centre, Stromness which was winner of the 2007 RIAS Doolan Building of the Year Scotland Award; the competition design for Dunfermline Museum and Art Gallery; and the Beatson Institute, University of Glasgow. Gillespie is also a tutor at the Architecture Department of Edinburgh College of Art.

Switzerland: Zurich, Winterthur, Schaffhausen and Basel

Spin members were invited by the National Collecting Scheme for Scotland to travel with a group of Scottish curators aorund the most prestigious collections and galleries in Switzerland, culminating with VIP visits to Basel Art Fair and Liste 04. The intinerary was extensive and we met directors from several collections.

In Zurich, we visited the Kunsthalle, The Migros Museum, Hauser & Wirth Gallery and Daros Collection (all housed in the Lowenbrau complex) and Helmhaus. In Winterthur, we visited the Fotomuseum and the Kunstmuseum, and in Schaffhausen, we toured around the Hallen fur Neue Kunst. In Basel, as well as attending the enormous Basel Art Fiar and Liste 04, we visted Schaulager, Museum fur Gegenwartskunst Basel, Foundation Beyeler, Kunst Raum Riehen, the Kunstmuseum and the Kunsthalle.