Roman Signer. Landscape at the Kunsthaus Zürich

The exhibition title may be misleading for some visitors, especially if they are unfamiliar with Signer's work or have not seen the exhibition posters. Visitors to Roman Signer's exhibition will not find landscape paintings or panoramic photographs. Rather, it is a transformed and open landscape composed of various elements in the large exhibition hall of the Kunsthaus Zürich in the Moser Building. The space becomes an open surface – a vast, scenic plain where surprising and playful encounters await. Always accompanied by a great deal of humor.

The Swiss artist Roman Signer (*1938) is not a typical artist. He doesn't work in a studio or workshop, but outdoors in nature and on the street—in the landscape. And that's probably for the best—because his works testify to a pronounced, transcendent, experimental curiosity. What happens when a stool attached to several helium-filled balloons rises into the air and Signer shoots them down with an air rifle? What does it look like when a wooden bridge is engulfed in flames by fireworks? What is happening here physically and visually? How is what happens perceived?

It's about experiments, experiences, curiosity, movement, material, and time, about action and reaction—what happens if...? This question seems to have occupied Signer for five decades. He transforms: time, space, and energy become essential elements of his artistic work.

What does a kayak look like inside? How does a round ball penetrate the spatial boundaries of a square? And can a table actually fly? Signer's works radiate a peculiar calm and their composition is poignantly poetic.

In particular, the video works in the adjacent cabinet invite you to linger (and are explained there through sign language and visually reinforced in their visual strength).

What remains are the effects, reactions, and results of her experimental past. They gently remind us of the fleeting nature of the moment visualized in this now completed snapshot.

Signer works with everyday objects: bottles, sand, buckets and rubber boots, kayaks and Christmas trees, inflatable armbands, furniture and ladders. This approach makes his works seem so approachable and tangible. After all, this is contemporary art, and that can be incomprehensible at times and even off-putting to some visitors. Yet we understand Signer's works – they evoke a childlike enthusiasm that is far too often lost. They demonstrate a desire to understand the world and an approach to exploring it through one's own experiments and ideas. And so, everyday objects break free from their assigned stereotypical role and become something entirely different. Because "those who look at it purely objectively will not understand the poetry behind it." Roman Signer, 2021

I highly recommend the exhibition Roman Signer: Landscape – it's definitely worth visiting with children. Many exciting ideas are waiting to be discovered in this spacious space until August 17, 2025.

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Roman Signer

Landscape

Kunsthaus Zurich, Moser Building

April 4 – August 17, 2025

More about the exhibition

More about Roman Signer