ART CITIES: Geneva-Olaf Holzapfel

In his artistic work, Olaf Holzapfel is interested in space and how space is created. The results of his work are sculptures, which he creates in various media. For his conceptual art, he uses traditional handicraft techniques on an equal footing with digital image processing. Apart from painting, he also works with sculpture, installation, photography, film and digital printing.

By Efi Michalarou
Photo: Xippas Gallery Archinve

Entitled “Das Gewachsene – Ce qui a grandi”, Olaf Holzapfel’s exhibition brings together his most recent works, some of which were created especially for the show that is on show in two spase of Xippas Gallery in Geneva. The artist, known for his work in the fields of sculpture, installation and textile art, is presenting works from three different series grouped together. His work is often characterised by repetitive patterns and organic forms, which are inspired by both nature and human constructions. In Rue des Sablons, the gallery presents a series of works made of rye straw, a plant that has been cultivated in Europe for 1500 years, here cut and dyed. Rye belongs to that part of our environment to which we are no longer attentive. The German artist has turned to this agricultural by-product that is omnipresent in the province of Brandenburg (Germany).  His works echo religious straw artefacts which, while remaining abstract, are concrete representations of the sun, life, death or resurrection. Similarly, his straw images are abstract but address concepts related to the city, such as digital nomadism and the city as a collection of ‘signs’. They deconstruct the canons of 19th century landscape painting by injecting the landscape into their work. The works become representations of the latter with the materials that constitute it. On a formal level, they reflect the two-dimensional image and the three-dimensional space as well as exploring the novel representation of landscape space and identity. In the Rue du Vieux-Billard space, the artist exhibits two other series, one composed of hay and the other of chaguar. Entitled “Lichtbilder”, the first is made with wooden frames filled with tightly woven hemp ropes, which are produced according to a traditional German-Polish method of twisting together dried herbs and wild flowers. The second series consists of works in chaguar (the name of several South American plant species in the Bromeliaceae family) which were made between 2009 and 2022 with Wichis weavers from the Argentine Gran Chaco. Olaf Holzapfel travelled to South America several times, especially to the Chaco Salteño and Patagonia, to understand the landscapes, people and production techniques of these regions and climates.

The forms of expression resulting directly from the natural environment appeal to him: whether it be Wichí works, Patagonian wooden fences or, closer to home, handicrafts made of straw from Brandeburg, which also carry the sun that the plants have received. The chaguar weavings form a special group, if only because of the economic windfall they represented for these women. The first major exhibition of these works was shown at the 2011 Venice Biennale, as well as at the Bicentennials in various South American countries. The works are presented in two groups: on the one hand, the Paths of Buenos Aires paintings, a collaboration that developed over more than a decade between Holzapfel and the Gutiérrez family of Misión Chaqueña in northern Argentina. On the other hand, the works in the series “Die Farben des Waldes”, realised with the Thañí group, from the Wichí villages along the Pilcomayo River. These works reflect the materials, colors and elements characteristic of the Gran Chaco, but they are also a bridge to the visual language of metropolises such as Buenos Aires or Berlin. Indeed, the webs of the city, the rural world and textiles converge, one allowing us to understand the other. These works link urban grid structures with the colors and details of a landscape. They combine a textile grid with artificial tones and details. From another point of view, it can be said that they superimpose contemporary images on ancestral images. The artist’s digitally produced textile models, the drawings of virtual urban forms and spaces, including their shadows, lights and colours, are assimilated and diverted by the weavers, who translate them into textiles with their know-how. Finally, the viewer are able to discover a video from 2019 that highlights this exchange between the dry forest and the city. The montage is inspired by the urban grid and forest structures. Teresa talks about her work and her situation as a modern nomad. The textiles are the result of an ancient community practice. The know-how is passed on orally from generation to generation. The colours are obtained from tree bark, seeds, roots and fruits. This partnership between the worlds of art and craft brings together very different social and economic environments. It shows that such exchanges between North and South are not only possible, but necessary.

Photo: Olaf Holzapfel, Courtesy the artist and Xippas Gallery

Info: Xippas Gallery, Rue des Sablons 6 & Rue du Vieux-Billard 7, Geneva, Switzerland, Duration: 16/3-29/4/2023, Days & Hours: Tue-Fri 10:00-13:00 & 14:00-18:30, Sat 12:00-17:00, www.xippas.com/