PARIS, FRANCE.- The Musée d’Art moderne de la Ville de Paris is pleased to present the first French retrospective of the work of Peter Fischli & David Weiss. Since 1979 these two Swiss artists have been working together in media including installation, sculpture, photography, film and video, the result being a Dada-inflected art at once playful and experimental, humorous and mocking. Their detached view of our society finds expression in tiny discrepancies, imperceptible tweakings that lay bare reality's incongruously poetic side. Juggling with the viewer's expectations, they challenge the conventions of art with a mix of references to both "high" and popular culture. Peter Fischli & David Weiss are among those contemporary artists whose work possesses an evocative power based on a subtle yet trashy humour and a refreshingly subversive take on the unease of our time.
The exhibition comprises over twenty works, including: The photographic series Airports (1987–2006) which, set against the series Flowers, Mushrooms (1997–98), makes play with the clichéd beauty and banality of landscapes. Suddenly this Overview (1981–2006): a hundred unfired clay sculptures suggestive of a history of the world. The film The Right Way (1983): disguised as a rat and a bear, the two artists travel the world in quest of truths big and small. The film The Way Things Go (1987): a fascinating display of everyday objects – teapots, car tyres, buckets and balloons – whose interaction produces absurd chain reactions boosted by explosions and collisions. The photographic series Quiet Afternoon (1984–85): perilously balanced assemblages of domestic utensils. Polyurethane sculptures (1992–2000): meticulous reproductions of the host of everyday objects to be found in the Fischli & Weiss studio. Visible World (1987–2000): projections of an encyclopaedic collection of 3000 photographs covering the artists' travels. Questions (2002–03): a slideshow that raises – in French, English, German, Japanese and Arabic – hundreds of deep or trivial philosophical questions, among them "Will I find happiness?" Fotografías (2004–05): a series of black and white photos of painted images, taken by the artists.
Peter Fischli & David Weiss are represented in the Museum's permanent collection by the major works Visible World (1987–97) and Questions (1981–2002). They exhibited there in 1999, took part in the exhibition "Voilà" in 2000 and contributed to the hanging of the exhibition "Francis Picabia" at the Musée d’Art moderne de la Ville de Paris in 2002.
This exhibition is organised by Musée d’Art moderne de la Ville de Paris in association with Tate Modern, London and Kunsthaus Zürich.
