The Viewer - Strandbad Thun, 2021
The location of the open-air swimming facility Strandbad Thun is extraordinary. With its stretch of lakeside land, it is set against a unique mountain panorama and presents an unparalleled view out into the distance. The diagonal line of sight across Lake Thun to the peaks Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau reveals an atypical expanse, goes beyond the constraints of scale and extends over the surveyable Berner Oberland.
The proposed work, called ‘The Viewer’, mediates between the here and there – between corporeality and imagination. A chair, five metres tall, facing outwards into the distance, tries to accommodate the vastness with its overlong legs, striving to mediate between the here and there, between corporeality and imagination, by means of its distorted scale. Due to its height, the chair is unconquerable and stands as a placeholder between our fleeting projections and the materiality of things in the here and now.
In his works, Philipp Schaerer often thematises the blurring of the boundary between virtual and physical reality. ‘The Viewer’ is a physical object, but with its minimal and abstract formulation, it brings to mind the graphics of a 3D computer model. This balancing act between virtual and material worlds is a defining theme in Schaerer’s works.
Images & Captions
Installation View A
Metall sculpture
Date: October, 2021
Installation View B
Metall sculpture
October, 2021
Installation View C
Metall sculpture
October, 2021
Axononometry and Elevations
Technical Drawing
Date: August, 2021
Writings & Reviews
Liechti, P. (2021, October). Kunst zwischen See und Sprungturm. Thun Magazin, No. 5/2021. pp. 24-25. > PDF (German)