ST. GALLEN.- The unusual exhibition project Good Life Ceramics by Caro Niederer at the Kunstmuseum St. Gallen develops in a special setting that changes systematically over the course of the exhibition. The exhibition takes place on the lower floor of the museum, whose architecture has remained unchanged since the Naturmuseum St. Gallen moved to a new building. The rooms are thus the site of a work in progress that extend across the entire lower floor of the building in stages.

In many ways, Caro Niederer (*1963 in Zurich) is an ideal choice for such a project. In her work, every moment can be an artistic act. Thus, moments and things from everyday life engage in a dialogue with her paintings and sculptures. She brings her works from the private sphere into the public art context and thus reflects on the act of collecting art and the interweaving of art and everyday life.

The project begins with the opening of a cafe filled with artworks that the artist lends a new function in the surrounding area: curtains whose printed patterns are taken from her paintings, publications that become part of the exhibition, which visitors can browse through, as well as artistic ceramics that the guests in the cafe can use and that lend the exhibition its title. The fact that herbs from the neighboring park are being served as fine tea in the cafe also fits with the linking of art and everyday life.

Good Life Ceramics aims to explore various ways in which an exhibition space can be used while bringing public and private aspects into harmony. The original setting has been augmented with works by fellow artists and from the artist’s private collection. The exhibition is being continually expanded with new presentations that illuminate Caro Niederer’s oeuvre from various perspectives. Every moment can be understood as a reflection in order to perceive the exhibition space as a hybrid place where personal experience can be shared with the broader public. This attitude is also evident in the publication Album (2017). Snapshots that the artist posts on Instagram represent a kind of “landscape of the day” and translate the artist’s life into a visual diary.

Curator: Lorenzo Benedetti