Roman Signer

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. ...

To avoid any narcissism the gallery will not bear a name, but instead mark of the end of a century during which the Fine Arts are exhausted of unknown practices and forms, Art: Concept was born. In 1997, the gallery joined its friends in the 13th district of Paris to be part of the adventure of the brand new rue Louise Weiss. Despite unforgettable years in this district, the move to the Marais was inevitable. Today, the gallery is located in a private passage (passage Sainte Avoye) and represents artists with whom it has been working for 25 years as well as young graduates. Trying to reflect the evolution of society, the gallery emphasises its proposals in a multi-faceted reflection on individuality and collectivity in a wide range of contexts. Like Janus, it looks both to the past and the future. Today's world is so in need of reference points that it's reassuring to invent a future, thanks to artists, as well as to compare it to the past. We invite you to ask for it, we will be at the gallery, very happy to explain it to you. ...