O.T. (P.D.J._L)

Thomas Baldischwyler’s Jahresgabe takes up strategies of replication as described in anthropology by the so-called “cargo cult”: objects and infrastructures that are reconstructed from simple materials, but without reproducing their function. Imitation becomes an attempt to fulfil an invisible promise. Baldischwyler also refers to Luis Buñuel's La Mort en ce jardin (1956), a film in which a seemingly documentary-like setting abruptly shifts into psychological images. Inspired by a torn postcard in this film, Baldischwyler uses fragments of found material, which he applies to a cut-up and stapled-together surface. Finally, he combines this double fragmentation of background and motif in an acrylic frame reminiscent of specimen boxes in natural history museums: places that attempt to make the transitory permanent. Baldischwyler is particularly interested in the projection of human feelings onto objects and environments. What initially appears to be objective observation is often already an expression of hope, fear, or need.