Explore the Kunstmuseum Winterthur's 'Closer' exhibition, featuring early works by Heidi Bucher and contemporary reflections by Liesl Raff, just 40 minutes from Zurich. Discover latex art, dance floors, and transformative spaces.
Just 40 minutes out of Zurich, the Kunstmuseum Winterthur opened 'Closer' running from the 13th of June to the 8th of November, featuring early work by Heidi Bucher (1926- 1993), accompanied by works developed by Liesel Raff upon reflecting on Bucher's catalogue. While Bucher is best known for her later 'skinning' series, where she coated and peeled off the interiors of rooms with latex to create delicate 'skins. This exhibition turns the spotlight on her lesser-seen early works. These pieces reveal the foundation of her later mastery and highlight a century since her birth. Rather than a historical overview, the exhibition places Bucher's early works in dialogue with Raff's contemporary creations, using materials like latex, fiberglass, and metal to frame both artists' explorations of space and materiality Stepping into the first room named 'Space for Heidi ', the ground is soft and muffling, covered in layered squares of dance studio floors, which make up Raff's own studio floors tape from previous marks scattered across in a range of colour tapes, the history of the practice and of performance filling the room. The walls are lined with fibreglass panels, and each of Bucher's framed pieces is separated by metal partitions, giving each its own space to breathe. Moving closer, Bucher's framed pieces consist of build-up latex, which often encases different natural additions like pearl dust. These early works perfectly illustrated how she built up to her mastery of latex later in her career. In a room off to the side, there was also video documentation of one of her 'skinnings' where Bucher and an unnamed helper peel latex off a 19th-century home, showing how this solid building becomes a flexible and reshapeable form. Sadly, when I visited the 'Corridor (variation 3)' installation by Liesl Raff, which fills the first floor foyar had been temporarily removed. This monumental installation featured coloured latex panels stretched over standing metal frames. This was…