There are places I remember – some have gone and some remain. There are places we know from pictures, books, magazines and TV and those we know from tales and stories. There are places we visited and places we lived in. There are the places of our childhood and those we always wanted to go to. There are places with a better economy, more freedom, better food, less suppression, war, injustice; you name it, you got it. In our mind they come together, we mix them up, idealize them and create places that don’t exist. Nevertheless these images of places feed our longing for them, and if the longing wins over the fear, those images make us go there.

First in space. First steps on an unknown land, first contacts, all those wonders and difficulties awaiting us in the strange places we were longing for.

Exhibiting in this local based gallery, the artist becomes an invader, an artistic immigrant. Even though only for a limited time, he occupies space in an existing social context, brings his belonging, settles down, and becomes visible for the people living there.

The title of the exhibition also refers to a mountain, the “Dornbirner First” which looms over the hometown of the artist. The image of the mountain appears over and over, in drawings, collages and installations, and becomes a symbol for that place called home, or the idealized memory of it.

The longing for far away places and their idealization, false expectations and the pain of leaving home behind, are central topics in the work of Pirmin Hagen.

In a mixture of drawings, prints and sculptural works, the show at the open source gallery will try to capture the ongoing story of coming and going, leaving and arriving, solitude and overcrowding.