Roman Signer

Roman Signer

BornNationalityBased In
1938SwissSankt Gallen
Biography

Roman Signer was born in 1938 in Appenzel Switzerland. He lives and works in Saint Gallen, Switzerland. Since the mid-seventies, Roman Signer has showed and re-enacted paradoxes. The mini-shows and non-happenings generated by his sculptures, installations and performances and documented by his videos and photographs form a permanent questioning on the economy of entertainment. With a light approach, his work tackles modern concerns such as efficiency, performance or productivity as well as our deeply rooted obsession with functionality. Renowned for his “Actions”, Signer has often been defined as a pyrotechnical artist or given the label of “explosion-artist”, but he refuses to be circumscribed by the abundant literature and many remarks circulating on his work. The body of work that he has created is in itself extremely versatile, encompassing various disciplines such as happening, sculpture, drawing, installation, photography and video. Regardless of the chosen medium, the creative process often reveals, by means of a structured suspension in time, what is scarcely or very seldom visible. Signer’s skills are all turned towards the reproduction of a magic moment, almost ritualized by his work: the moment when slight transformation of shape and matter are possible. Signer combines the simplicity of everyday gestures and materials to the complexity of technical devices and physical phenomena, activated without the necessity of keeping them under total control. Signer’s presence is sometimes triggering and off-camera, while sometimes he turns into a real stuntman: the Sisyphus-like boulder pushing character of his own work. ...

Selected Artworks
Flussaufwärts, Bergelia
Roman Signer
Flussaufwärts, Bergelia, 2008
89.87 x 59.99cm
Parapluie II
Roman Signer
Parapluie II, 2007
31 x 46cm
Table avec bouteille de vin + 4 verres
Roman Signer
Table avec bouteille de vin + 4 verres, 2005
24 x 36cm
Vier Räder
Roman Signer
Vier Räder, 2002
40 x 60cm
Kajak im Fass
Roman Signer
Kajak im Fass, 1988
80 x 120cm
2 Ballone
Roman Signer
2 Ballone, 1983
30 x 45cm
Turm -Tisch
Roman Signer
Turm -Tisch, 1979
40 x 30cm
Vers la Flamme und Roman Signer
Roman Signer
Vers la Flamme und Roman Signer, 2014
Gallery Representation
Biennals
Athens Biennale2013 - Athens
Athens Biennale2013 - Athens
Shanghai Biennial2012 - Shanghai
Shanghai Biennial2012 - Shanghai
Busan Biennial2004 - Busan
Busan Biennial2004 - Busan
Carnegie International1999 - Pittsburgh
Documenta1987 - Kassel
Documenta1987 - Kassel
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