#jerome stunzi

[viz-a-visage]

Studio Visit: Jérôme Stünzi and Old Masters

In Constructionisme, Swiss artist Jérôme Stünzi transforms discarded objects and trash found at Paris’ Centre Pompidou into minimalist kinetic sculptures which seem to possess a personality of their own. His colleague Marius Schaffter, a performer and geographer, then stages a public performance in the same museum, in which he presents, analyzes, and dissects the sculpture, imitating the droll demeanor of a museum docent. He anatomically describes the sculpture’s surface details, including its color and shape, before slowly sliding into an erratic and absurd stream of consciousness about politics, religion, and reality. The audience responds in turn — vague interest is followed by confusion and uncomfortable laughter as Schaffter begins to touch and dissect the sculpture in the middle of the museum.

As part of their art collective Old Masters, the duo has performed the piece in a number of galleries, museums, and academic conferences, using the intervention to question and reconstruct institutional culture and etiquette. The piece reminds me of Andrea Fraser’s 1989 Museum Highlights: A Gallery Talk, in which the artist becomes a fictional docent giving a tour of the Philadelphia Museum of Art while commenting on the building’s toilets, cloakroom and exit sign. Much like Stünzi and Schaffter’s Constructionisme, Fraser’s performance offers a sharp critique of the art world as well as the class interests and protocols which uphold certain power dynamics within it. As the Old Masters write: Bonjour l'iconoclasme!