S01E08 Exposure

Installation, 2021
Solo exhibition, Untitled Basel, Basel

With S01E08 Exposure, Urs August Steiner choreographs the Meriansaal of Brasserie Spitz with a room-filling installation. Two oversized blue, translucent fabric panels are hung across the corner and cover part of the floor-to-ceiling windows. A black-and-white checkered circular form is placed in the center of the hall, filled with smoke. The replaced bulbs in the imposing chandeliers bathe the room in cool blue light in the evening. Known by the name "Café Spitz", the town's social center was built from 1838 to 1840 according to plans by architect Amadeus Merian. The building has an eventful history, having fallen victim to several fires, undergone extensions or reconstructions, and changed its name several times.

Urs August Steiner's installations are usually site-specific and unfold a multifaceted narrative in space. In his most recent work, he refers to the historical background of the classicist building. At the same time, he pursues his long-standing interest around the desire for immortality. S01E08 Exposure is part of his long-term project "Non Crystal", which deals with transience, infinity and ultimately with the wish not to be forgotten. The dream of eternal life has a long tradition - think of the considerable efforts that were made, for example, in connection with the burial chambers of ancient Egypt. As technology advances, this utopia seems within reach thanks to scientific visions of the future such as cryonics. Known since early science fiction literature, the desire to freeze the body and revive it as needed in the future is being explored in reality by the cryonic movement.

Similar to a television series, Urs August Steiner specifies his installations as seasons and episodes. However, this by no means creates a linear story, but rather a network of references that he continuously spins on. The vocabulary he has developed specifically for this purpose, which he uses again and again in his work and which also appears in S01E08 Exposure, includes the circle - as a symbol of the eternal, infinity, perfection; as well as the black and white check pattern, which we immediately associate with the chequered flag in racing. Reminiscent of a circus ring, smoke rises from the circle over and over again, hanging in suspension for a moment, only to evaporate soon after. Another attempt to capture the frantic pace of time? "Exposure" in the title means as much as uncovering, revealing, exposing. Using various means and techniques, Urs August Steiner attempts to translate history or time into a new materiality in his work. This is evident in the blue prints presented in the room, which he produced with the help of an old photographic printing process, the cyanotype. The substrate used for this comes from the last exposed original sandstone wall in the basement of the building. Through the exposure time and the traces of the sand grains on the paper, he captures the past of the site and makes it visible. By finally returning it to the building in a different form, and at the same time carrying the "inside" to the outside, he adds another story, as it were.
What traces do we leave behind? Is death the greatest risk in life? And should we one day attain eternal life, what significance will memory then still have?

Text: Patrizia Keller, September 2021

Image 01
S01E08 Exposure, installation, exterior view of Brasserie Spitz, blue LED light

Image 02
S01E08 Exposure, installation, sculpture: plywood, smoke, acrylic paint, Ø 350 cm, wall piece: digital print of a cyanotype print on fabric, 3 x 250 cm x 400 cm, blue LED lights, dimensions variable

Image 03
S01E08 Exposure, installation, sculpture: plywood, smoke, acrylic paint, Ø 350 cm, wall piece: digital print of a cyanotype print on fabric, 3 x 250 cm x 400 cm, blue LED lights, dimensions variable

Image 04
S01E08 Exposure, installation, sculpture: plywood, smoke, acrylic paint, Ø 350 cm, wall piece: digital print of a cyanotype print on fabric, 3 x 250 cm x 400 cm, blue LED lights, dimensions variable