Christoph Hänsli - The Conference of Things

The Swiss conceptual artist Christoph Hänsli (*1963) gained international recognition through his work Mortadella and primarily uses painting as his medium. He often chooses subjects that are nearly unparalleled in their everyday nature. This results in empathetic portraits of vacuum cleaners, suitcases, beer glasses, archive boxes, and even the main switch of a crematorium. Transience, absence, and memory are important themes in his work. In this book, ten authors have selected an image that particularly resonates with them and have written a text about it. Among them are the writers Judith Schalansky, Ruth Schweikert, and Gianna Molinari, as well as the author Tim Krohn, the gallery owners Juerg Judin and Pay Matthis Karstens, the curator Friedrich Meschede, and the curator Cathérine Hug, the literary scholar Ulrike Vedder, the chemistry professor Christian Hackenberger, and the philosopher, media scholar, and artist Erik Porath. This has resulted in a wonderfully affectionate homage to the captivating banality of things.