Alex Hanimann: Same But Different Cat. Villa Merkel Esslingen / Kunstmuseum St. Gallen / FRAC Nord-Pas de Calais

With Same But Different, Alex Hanimann presents a time journey through his artistic production. Already the reflective cover is a reference to Nico’s cool, spoken rather than sung song "I'll Be Your Mirror" with the Velvet Underground. ‘Iconic images’ is an important theme for the artist, organized here like a loop of images with highly informative texts and visual material from three exhibitions in 2019/20 at Kunstmuseum St. Gallen, Villa Merkel Esslingen, and FRAC Grand Large Dunquerque. The raster works from the 1970s are just as much part of the exhibition as the new glossy sculptures from the last five years depicting young people at a slightly larger scale in their typical contemporary outfits (CONVERSATION PIECE). The unifying element is a video journey by bicycle (CATCH OF THE DAY) through Victoria Park, which signifies the utopian aspect. The artist combines the images of his own youth and the portrayal of the child generation with a life motif of movement.

Hans Ulrich Obrist (born 1968) is a Swiss curator, the current artistic director of the Serpentine Galleries London, and he is seen as one of the most influential people in the art scene. Hans Ulrich Obrist has curated countless exhibitions and interviewed the creative minds of the 20th and 21st centuries in his Interview Project, including John Baldessari, Zaha Hamid, Gerhard Richter, Yoko Ono, Robert or Rem Kohlhaas. Kurt Eckert (born 1948) is a Swiss graphic designer and was a university lecturer. Rolf Hengesbach founded the gallery in Wuppertal in 1991. Andreas Baur worked in Hamburg for the Deichtorhallen, the Hamburger Kunsthalle, and the Kunsthaus; from 1998 to 2001. Since April 2001 he has been director of Villa Merkel, galleries of the city of Esslingen am Neckar. Lorenzo Benedetti is actually curator at Kunstmuseum St. Gallen; from 2014 he was director of de Appel arts center. Angelika Affentranger has written in particular for the Neue Zürcher Zeitung and the Kunst-Bulletin. Besides and after her employment as curator of the Kunsthalle Winterthur, she realized numerous exhibitions as guest curator. Omar Koleif is an Egyptian artist, curator, writer, and editor living in London; he is currently the Sharjah Art Foundation’s director of collections and senior curator. Nadia Veronese is curator at the Kunstmuseum St. Gallen and director of the Kunstverein St. Gallen. Patrick Frey (born 1949) is a Swiss author, actor, and publisher; in 1986 he founded his Edition Patrick Frey. Keren Detton is since 2016 director of FRAC Nord-Pas de Calais.