A Step Towards the Sea tells the relationship between the artist and
Italy through a selection of installation views and video works. The accompanying DVD includes an unreleased film and a documentation on every actions carried out in Italy by Signer since the 1990s.
Signer's bond with the country is a special one, bearing in mind some of his most renown works, produced on the Stromboli volcano, or the numerous actions and sculptures that revolve around an Italian iconic subject such as the Ape Piaggio. The central section of the book is dedicated to Sardinia, with a conversation between Lorenzo Giusti and the artist and a photographic essay by Barbara Signer. A text by Barbara Casavecchia contextualizes Signer's Italian dimension by introducing the viewing of Reisen Italien: a personal collection of filmic notes produced by the artist in the course of his journeys with the family in the 1990s. The essay by Rachel Withers introduces the hefty iconographic setting of his entire Super-8 production, which consists of 205 clips filmed between 1975 and 1989 and presented in a large installation within the exhibition in Nuoro. The book is accompanied by a DVD which, in addition to the unreleased film, gathers all of the actions Signer carried out in Italy starting from the 1990s and a piece he produced specifically for the exhibition, after which the book is titled.
Published following the exhibition “Roman Signer. Films and Installation,” at the MAN, Nuoro, from April 22 to July 3rd, 2016.
Swiss artist Roman Signer (born 1938 in Appenzell) has been redefining
sculpture for more than 40 years and is now regarded as one of the finest representatives of Process and
Conceptual art. He produces elementary dynamic sculptures and installations, also known as time sculptures for their preoccupation with the transformation of materials and objects through time. In his actions, acceleration and change are part of the creative process and he uses photography and moving image to document his work.
His work has been presented in numerous museums and galleries worldwide and has been selected for prestigious international exhibitions such as the Venice Biennale, where he represented Switzerland in 1999, Skulptur Projekte Münster (1997) as well as Documenta 8 in Kassel where during "Action in front of the Orangerie" he catapulted 350.000 sheets of paper into the air simultaneously with an explosive charge.
Contributions by Barbara Casavecchia, Barbara Signer, Rachel Whiters, Li Zhenhua, interview with Roman Signer by Lorenzo Giusti.
Graphic Design: Julia.
published in September 2016
bilingual edition (English / Italian)
16 x 24 cm (hardcover) + DVD
200 pages (color ill.)
ISBN : 978-88-99385-13-2
EAN : 9788899385132
sold out
