Peter Fischli & David Weiss
Peter Fischli (born 8 June 1952) and David Weiss (21 June 1946 – 27 April 2012), often shortened to Fischli/Weiss, were a Swiss artist duo that collaborated beginning in 1979. Their best-known work is the film Der Lauf der Dinge (The Way Things Go, 1987), described by The Guardian as being "post apocalyptic", as it concerned chain reactions and the ways in which objects flew, crashed and exploded across the studio in which it was shot. Fischli lives and works in Zürich; Weiss died on 27 April 2012.
Education and early career[edit]
Peter Fischli (born 8 June 1952) was born in Zürich.
David Weiss (21 June 1946 – 27 April 2012) grew up as the son of a parish priest and a teacher. After discovering a passion for jazz at the age of 16, he enrolled in a foundation course at the Kunstgewerbeschule, Zürich, where in his first year of study he befriended fellow artist Urs Lüthi. Having rejected careers as a decorator, a graphic designer and a photographer, Weiss soon came to view a career as an artist as a realistic prospect.[1] He studied at the Kunstgewerbeschule, Zürich (1963–64), and the Kunstgewerbeschule, Basel (1964–65); he subsequently worked as a sculptor with Alfred Gruber (Basel) and Jacqueline Stieger (England). In 1967, he worked at the Expo 67 in Montreal, before travelling to New York, where he got to know the important minimalist art of the time. Between 1970 and 1979 he published books in collaboration with Lüthi. For most of 1975–78, he spent a great deal of time drawing in black ink, and had exhibitions at galleries in Zürich, Amsterdam, Cologne, and Rotterdam.[2]
Fischli and Weiss met in 1978[1] and subsequently formed a short-lived rock band, Migros.[3] Their first collaborative venture was a series of ten colour photographs, Wurstserie ("sausage series", 1979), depicting small scenes constructed with various types of meat and sausage and everyday objects, with titles such as "At the North Pole" and "The Caveman".[4]
Exhibitions[edit]
Fischli and Weiss had their first solo exhibition in 1981 at the Galerie Balkon in Geneva.[24] After showing Suddenly This Overview at the Galerie Stähli in 1981, they became regulars on the international art scene.[3] Their first solo exhibition in the United States was shown at the Sonnabend Gallery in New York in 1986. In more than 25 years of activity, the pair exhibited in some of the most important institutions and museums worldwide including Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona (2000); Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam (2003); Museo Tamayo Arte Contemporáneo in Mexico City (2005); and the Rencontres d'Arles festival, France. A U.S. retrospective of their work was organised by the Walker Art Center in 1996 and subsequently traveled to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco; and Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. Another retrospective of their work was held at Tate Modern, London in 2006, and traveled to the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Kunsthaus Zürich and the Deichtorhallen, Hamburg. Recent solo exhibitions were held at the Art Institute of Chicago (2011) and the Serpentine Gallery, London (2013).[15]
In 1995 they represented Switzerland in the Venice Biennale and in 2003 were included in the "Utopia Station" exhibition of the Venice Biennale curated by Rirkrit Tiravanija for which they were awarded the leone' d'oro for best work in the main exhibition.[24]
In 2000, the exhibition Aprendiendo menos (learning less) united Fischli and Weiss with Gabriel Orozco and Richard Wentworth. Three different perspectives through photography, where the artists are a means to portray street findings within the urban landscape, its surroundings and its objects. It was curated by Patricia Martín.[31]
Peter Fischli and David Weiss have been represented by the Matthew Marks Gallery since 1999.[3]
The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York City presented their first survey in New York in 2016.[32] The exhibition was accompanied by a display of their text-based monument to labour, How to Work Better (1991), as a wall mural at the corner of Houston and Mott Streets, and by screenings of Büsi (Kitty) on multiple advertising screens on Times Square every night in February at midnight.[33]
Collections[edit]
Their works are held, among others, in the collections of the Tate, United Kingdom,[34] the Pérez Art Museum Miami, Florida, and the Guggenheim, New York.[35]
Recognition[edit]
Fischli and Weiss won the Golden Lion prize at the 2003 Venice Biennale for Questions, an installation of over 1,000 photographic slides of handwritten existential questions the artists had collected over many years. In 2006 they received the Roswitha Haftmann Prize, Switzerland.[36]