ART AT SWISS RE NEXT I HELMUT FEDERLE DOMINIKUS MULLER

"THE ENORMOUS ROOM" wooden walls. The artist stood in the For Helmut Federle art is a matter of the middle and directed the execution of his utmost existential tension and a spiri- meticulously planned painting. tual affair: an expression of the individual, The Enormous Room clearly re­ a sign of inner unrest, a search for flects Federle's signature style; it is orientation. Federle's abstract, geometric an expression of his presence. The paint paintings are intensive and expressive, was applied in accordance with a while also possessing the calm composure specific dramaturgy: more or less intense, of a Zen garden. At Swiss Re Next, lighter or darker. Some areas of the he has transformed the auditorium into a wooden walls have been left untouched, walk-in painting. others are densely covered. Different superimposed layers begin to shimmer, One of Helmut creating depth and rhythm. Federle's favourite words is On one side there is a "climatic". In an interview remotely rectangular patch he stated: "Colour transports while on the other there climate." His painting of are vigorously applied the auditorium at Swiss Re painterly brushstrokes that Next is meant to look "cli­ recall the precision and matic rather than geometric". meditative concentration of A "climate" (cold or warm, calligraphy. And, finally, in the harsh or mild) is a statement, top back corner, there is even when it is a matter a comment on the painterly of something as intangible principle, and maybe on and personal as moods the fact that Federle was less and feelings. And for Federle, personally involved than concrete positioning and usual in the actual realization individuality are important. of thi$ painting: a large, For him, this is a question of identity dynamic horizontal brushstroke, but and deviation. applied as a screen print. It is an enlarged Federle's work in the windowless copy of an element taken from a model auditorium at Swiss Re Next is called of the room painted by Federle himself. The Enormous Room. The title could hardly Federle has a keen interest in be more fitting. With its almost 6-metre­ architecture and he has often worked with high ceiling, measuring 11 by 21 metres, architects in the past. With Diener & Diener, the auditorium is certainly enormous. the architects behind Swiss Re Next, With a team of assistants, and with the help he realized a firewall at the Swiss Embassy of the restorer Roland von Gunten, in Berlin. At the Novartis Campus Federle painted it completely in shades Forum 3 in Basel, Federle was extensively of green and yellow that are familiar involved in the design of the building from his paintings. The yellow seems to and especially the facade. But he has never give the whole room a warm, gentle glow. created anything like The Enormous The men used rollers, broad brushes Room: a walk-in painting, a spatialized and even repurposed mops to paint the abstract picture that surrounds the viewer.

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This really does generate a specific mood, performed as a singer in a nightclub. a special climate. Federle's climate. He later lived in the United States for some Born in 1944 in Solothurn, Switzer­ time. For some years now, he has felt land, Federle is one of the great loners attracted to East Asian cultures, especially in the last 40 years of painting. Someone that of Japan. Islam, the United States who cannot be assigned or even pinned and Far Eastern philosophy: "These are the down to a specific current. His work three major cultural influences in my oscillates between opposite poles, be­ life," says the artist. "But they are far from tween rigidly executed geometrical forms, homogenous. I can bring them together, rigor and control on the one hand, but I can't reconcile them." If one views and, on the other, free painterly gestures, Federle's works as direct expressions of the tangible emotions and the depth such a divided existence, this explains of individual expression. the tensions in his pictures The two sides are held to­ - and their tangible sense gether above all by the artist of a search for a centre and himself. "I have a frequency a balance. within me," says Federle, As a painter and as referring to the origins of his a human being, Federle project for Swiss Re Next, believes in the individual and "and the painting emanates in personal expression. from that frequency." In this context, he is For Federle, who rep­ interested not least in resented Switzerland at a certain kind of intensity, the Venice Biennale in 1997, an "upswing from ordinary painting (and art more gen­ being", as he calls it. erally) is an existential matter, And such an upswing and something philosophical. intensity are often He is known for often working found only in remoteness with the letters of his own name, especially and in retreating from existing conventions. the H and the F. In this way, he puts his Correspondingly, he says, he is drawn life and his person into his pictures, literally. to people who act "as their own content", His works are marked by great serious­ people who put their own existential ness and huge concentration. As well as weight into their work and who are capable being expressive and precise, the pic­ of creating this work from within tures are also perfectly balanced, creating themselves. One figure who plays an a sense of calm and composure. important role for Federle in this respect Federle's own life has been shaped is the American poet E. E. Cummings, by countless journeys and constant from whose autobiographical novel encounters with other cultures. It is the The Enormous Room (1922) his work for life of a seeker, never settled, always Swiss Re Next takes its title. In this on the move. "Unrest," he says, "is part of book, Cummings, who was born into a the magic." In his early 20s, in 1967, wealthy family on the East Coast, he went to Tunis where he had his first gives a striking account of his internment exhibition and, among other things, in France during World War I.

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"I read Cummings' poems as a young student in Basel," says Federle, "and they made a deep impression on me." In any case, he adds, many of his works can be understood as homages. Besides Cummings, other projects have been devoted to the Bauhaus artist and colour theorist Johannes ltten, to the painter Josef Albers or the Swiss martial arts fighter Andy Hug. In the audi­ torium at Swiss Re Next, a sign refers explicitly to Cummings. The great ones are those "who have devoted their lives to something" says Federle. What he means by this is the radical firmness of the dedicated. But also something else: the almost existential devotion to a cause.

The Swiss artist HELMUT FEDERLE, born 1944, lives and works in Vienna and Camaiore, Italy. For the building extension of the Swiss Embassy in Berlin, completed in 2000, he created a geometric wall relief. Major solo shows include: Calouste Gulbenkian Museum, Lisbon (2017), Kunstmuseum Luzern (2012), Kunsthaus Bregenz (1999) and Moderna Museet, Stockholm (1992).

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