Hannes Vogel (1938)
Switzerland


Biography :

"Training as a graphic designer; Attended the Zurich School of Applied Arts, then Center Froment and Académie Julian in Paris (1959). 1960–66 graphic designer in Basel. In 1966 he settled in Village-Neuf (France) near Basel as a freelance artist. Since the early 1970s, works in the field of art in buildings and in public spaces (since 1989 in collaboration with his wife, the designer Petruschka Vogel), 1977–1989 with television and video. Vogel has lived partly in Mathon (GR) since 1988 and permanently since 2004. 2006 Culture Prize of the City of Chur. 2009 retrospective at the DKM Museum, Duisburg, Graubünden Culture Prize 2014 (together with Petruschka Vogel).

Hannes Vogel's work can be understood as a single "work in progress" in which certain content, concepts and locations are continually reflected artistically. His critical examination of television and video, which he carried out between 1977 and 1989, takes place parallel to this work. The most important category is the video installations, accompanied by a large number of photographs and drawings, but only individual video tapes (Video Drawings for Presence, 1980), and from the mid-1980s also numerous video and television objects. In 1979, Hannes Vogel joined forces with Gérald Minkoff and Muriel Olesen to form the Video-mixmedia group. Until 1987, the three artists showed installations that were specially created for the occasion, some of which were new every day, at the Art Basel art fair.

The closed circuit, the connection between camera and monitor or television, is initially at the center of Vogel's installations; the corresponding work titles precisely name the constellation between television and the audience: About television and the illusion of getting closer (1980). In the mid-1980s, the television became more important as an object in the room. Starting with Der Lichthof (1984) with seven televisions without programs, an important group of works was created by 1988 in which Vogel varied the size and number of devices depending on the location and space.

Strong thematic axes of his work are the Schamser Valley in Graubünden, the game of chess and James Joyce. Since 1988, intensive engagement with the Schamser Valley (extensive later work series Exvoto, from 2004, Exlibris, from 2006, and Remember, from 2007). His involvement with the game of chess goes back to Marcel Duchamp and is not limited to the game of chess as an artistic and creative starting point (neon object N-M-D-N-M-D (Niklaus-Manuel-Deutsch-nicht-Marcel-Duchamp, 1987), but - just like the theme of Schams - Part of Vogel's long-standing text-analytic engagement with the work of the Irish poet James Joyce, which dates back to his early adulthood (For the occasional check of one's own optics, 1974, Finnegans Sehschule, 1999; pencil drawings). Vogel's location- and context-specific works are also partly related to these Contents connected (neon work DICK and DAVY, cafeteria lecture hall wing University Hospital Zurich, 1989–91*; Three quarks for Muster Mark, Einstein and Schläfli, 1993,* Joyce quote on the facade of the Exact Sciences Library in Bern).

The list of Vogel's site-specific interventions now includes almost fifty works; They have had a significant influence on the aesthetic and theoretical discourse in this area since the early 1980s. In Basel, the high chimneys of the district heating power plant (1981) and the waste incineration plant (1989) are the most visible. The Rosshof-Hof (1985–87), with the names of famous horses from history and literature embedded in concentric stone bands, is one of Vogel's most ambitious works. On the other hand, for obvious reasons, the artistic interventions in the Waaghof, the Basel public prosecutor's office with a remand prison, are only partially present in the public consciousness (1994–95). His most important works in Graubünden include the neon installation The Glory of the World (UBS at Postplatz Chur, 1993) and elements of an image observation from 2003 - a homage to Alberto Giacometti, which turns a stretch of road between Paris and Chur into a monument. In Austria, Hannes Vogel (together Petruschka Vogel) has won international competitions: Der Ring, forecourt of the State Hospital in Bruck an der Mur (1994/95), Der Marienplatz in Graz (2007) and forecourt of the main entrance to the children's center, State Hospital of Salzburg (2013)."
(Source, website, SIK)

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