The Lausanne-based artist Didier Rittener (*1969) works with a huge quantity of images collected from fashion magazines, advertisements, film stills, pattern books, art catalogues or daily newspapers, which he applies to various mediums. With the help of chemicals, he removes the top layer of his photocopied drawings. He uses this simple reproduction technique to develop a vocabulary that can be mixed and remixed again and again. His images range between romantic quotation and technical representation. In parallel to this focus, Rittener has also been developing a sculptural oeuvre that builds on associative processes while generating a strong spatial presence.
Works on paper and numerous sculptural pieces provide a comprehensive survey of Rittener’s recent artistic output. A spatially exciting interface is established by works that, though installed on the walls, operate as three-dimensional sculptures in space. For the exhibition at St. Gallen, Didier Rittener creates a site-specific installation by doubling one brick wall of the early 20th-century warehouse with an artificial facing. This surface forms the background for an outline-drawing which stands out dimly from the illusionary wall. The Lausanne-based artist rescales and camouflages ostensibly familiar signs.
The exhibition is organised in collaboration with Ralf Beil, curator at the Musée Cantonal des Beaux-Arts in Lausanne. A richly illustrated monograph with texts by Ralf Beil and Catherine Macchi de Vilhena is published by JRP | Ringier, Zurich, to accompany the show.