20 Years // MAI 36 GALERIE // 1988-2008

What – apart from the use of language – connects Lawrence Weiner, the pioneer of conceptual art who grew up in the New York Bronx, with the contemplative Swiss artist Ian Anüll, who was born in Sempach and now lives in Zurich? What cross references of content are revealed between the work of John Baldessari, born in 1931, and that of the Belgian artist Koenrad Dedobbeleer, born in 1975, or Robert Mapplethorpe, who died in 1989, and Jitka Hanzlová, born in 1958?

The work of these artists – drawn from a random selection – determines the art of the late 1960s to the present. They represent radical individual positions, they have developed an unmistakeable artistic language and have thus not only made their appearance in contemporary art, some of them have even made an important contribution to the history of art. In spite of all the obvious differences in their attitudes and approaches, two things connect these artists: on the one hand their investigation of the world, which issues from a sound conceptual basis, and a permanent reflection of their artistic means, which contrasts with the approach of pure 'L’art pour l’art'; on the other, entirely superficial, but by no means insignificant, a common venue of production and mediation of art: the Mai 36 Galerie in Zurich.