Fia Backström, Ida Ekblad, Jonathan Horowitz, Scott King, Germaine Kruip, Malcom McLaren, David Perry, Vivienne Westwood

Curated by Gianni Jetzer

The Swiss Institute is proud to launch its new project space STUDIO 495. It offers the opportunity of a more spontaneous approach to curating.

The first exhibition brings together an international group of artists. Selected works are hung in pairs and confront each other in a provocative way. Juxtaposition is rooted in the Art historical practice of formal comparison, which Heinrich Wölfflin popularized in his “Principles of Art History,” 1915. Rather than unveiling a paradigm shift, these contemporary comparisons undermine the reading of political imagery.

A text piece by Fia Backstrom, summarizes the leitmotif of the show, the confusion of opposites, “Using the left to be right, chic radicality.” In muddling the delineation of styles, sides, and missions, ultimately, good news collides with bad news.