In 2006, Grieder Contemporary organized the exhibition Kaminzimmer, a show that was inspired by the atmosphere, the furniture and the memories evoked by this domestic space typical of country houses: the fireplace room. The show featured works by young artists that reflected and continued the tradition of narrative painting, in what was meant to be a playful homage to the paintings that one could image hanging above the fireplace in a Kaminzimmer.

More than ten years after this exhibition, Grieder Contemporary revisits the curatorial concept of this show in a second edition of Kaminzimmer. Curated by Melli Ink, Kaminzimmer II turns the attention to another element of the fireplace room: the contemplation. Vintage and contemporary pieces of furniture interact in this exhibition with artworks, creating a space that feels more like a dreamscape than a living room.

The starting point of the show is Nader Ahriman’s epic scale painting “Plato Explains the Sidereal Eschatology of the Milky Way” (2004), a piece that was also included in the exhibition of 2006, thus becoming a bridge between the two Kaminzimmer exhibitions. The work by the Berlin-based Iranian artist is quite enigmatic and theatrical, setting the tone for the whole exhibition. Mechanical creatures, statuesque figures and curious props co-exist together in a composition that reminds of de Chirico’s “Pittura Metafisica”. The pieces of furniture close to the painting seem to have escaped from Ahriman’s canvas, materialising in the gallery space. 

In both rooms of the exhibition, the furniture seems to quietly and comfortably occupy the space of a surrealist, dreamlike composition. A daybed by Mies Van der Rohe invites visitors to sit and contemplate the room, while an oversized sculpture by John Bock of a bicycle on top of what resembles a kitchen table abruptly interrupts the visual flow. A vintage bar trolley stands lonely in the room, waiting to be filled with bottles and glasses, while a table with bird feet by Meret Oppenheim seems ready to move around by itself. 

A handprinted, one-of-a-kind wallpaper by Sonja Kacem reveals itself to the visitors as they enter into the second room of the exhibition, meanwhile deep green vintage armchairs welcome anyone willing to take a moment to slow down and observe the carefully curated landscape of furniture, sculptures and paintings creating an atmosphere of both humour and drama alike. 

What feels like a domestic and familiar environment, with elements that seem to belong in a living room, quickly turns into a surreal, uncanny space, as if one was walking inside someone else’s dream. This dream, however, opens a gate into the endless possibilities in which contemporary art and furniture design can affect, inspire and influence each other.

About the Artists

Nader Ahriman (*1964, Iran) Lives and works in Berlin, Germany. Ahriman has developed a dense, idiosyncratic vocabulary of formal aesthetics which includes a great number of philosophical, literary and art historic references, especially to the 19th and 20th centuries. His work has been shown at Whitechapel Art Gallery London, Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, Kunstverein Freiburg, Art Forum Berlin, Manifesta 7, Kunstverein Hamburg and many more.

Cristian Andersen (*1974, Denmark ) Lives and works in Zürich, Glarus and on the run. Andersen is known for his large, elaborately cast ceramic sculptures. His complex process starts with the creation of sculptures which mix found objects and industrial materials, of which he creates silicon negatives and then fills with partially pigmented ceramic. In recent years he has also printed computer generated images on concrete panels. His work has been shown at many international art spaces such as Public Art Fund, New York, Avlskarl gallery, Copenhagen, World Expo 2012, Shanghai and Artforum Berlin. He also got awarded with several prizes and Swiss and Danish stipends.

Stephan Balkenhol (*1957, Germany) is known for monumental painted wooden sculptures., often totemic, influenced by folk art and reminiscent of medieval carving techniques. The artist uses various soft woods such as poplar, Douglas fir or wawa and peels the figures out of a block of wood. His works have been exhibited in museums worldwide, including the National Museum of Art in Osaka, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts and the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.

John Bock (*1965, Germany) lives and works in Berlin. He is a sculptor, filmmaker, action artist, author and maker of drawings, best known for his theatrical cosmos of genre-bending performances and installations. Bock’s work has been shown internationally in museums such as Museum of Modern Art, New York, Fondazione Nicola Trussardi, Milan, Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt, P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center New York, Centre Pompidou, Paris, Venice Biennale (1999, 2005, 2013) and Documenta, Kassel, Germany among many others. 

Ross Chisholm (*1977, United Kingdom) lives and works in London. His works have been widely shown throughout Europe and the United States as well as Australia and the United Arab Emirates, with solo shows at Green Art Gallery, Dubai (2014), Ibid Projects, London (2012), Marc Jancou Contemporary, New York (2011), and Grieder Contemporary, Zurich (2010). Recent group exhibitions include Hirschfaktor – Die Kunst des Zitierens at ZKM, Karlsruhe (2010), Rive Gauche/Rive Droite, Marc Jancou Contemporary, Paris, me collectors Room Berlin, The Olbricht Collection, Berlin (both 2010).

Angus Fairhurst (*1966 – 2008, United Kingdom) was an English artist working in installation, photography and video. He was one of the Young British Artists (YBAs). His conceptual work—which includes sculpture, painting, performance, photography, video, music, printmaking, drawing, and collage—is marked by an anti-establishment sense of humor. He often used visual cues like animals and magazine images to investigate questions of self-awareness, vanity and the life of an artist. Tragically, he committed suicide in 2008. 

Anna Fasshauer (*1975, Germany) is a sculptor and colorist. Her work engages with aluminum and industrial paint in direct opposition to the male minimalists and maximalists of the late 20th century. Fasshauer uses only her body and a rivet gun to form her sculptures – no assistants, no bending machinery, no fabricators. She lives and works in Berlin and her work has been included in numerous exhibitions at institutions worldwide, including Jardin des Tuileries, Paris; Orient-Institut Beirut, Lebanon; Kunstverein Arnsberg; London Barbican Center; Kunsthalle Baden and Goethe-Institut Beirut, Lebanon.

Florian Graf (*1980, Basel) lives and works in Basel and elsewhere. He studied at the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETH), Edinburgh College of Art, the Prince’s Drawing School, London and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Florian Graf’s works are included in collections such as those of Swiss Post (CH), the Graphische Sammlung der ETH Zurich (CH), the Museum of Modern Art Moscow (RU), the National Gallery of Modern Art Edinburgh (UK) and HRH The Prince of Wales’ Private Collection (UK). His most recent exhibitions are solo shows at the Kunst Halle Sankt Gallen (CH) and the Krasnoyarsk Museum Centre (RU).

Sonia Kacem (*1985, Geneva, CH) Lives and works in Geneva. Sonia’s practice has been characterized by voluminous in situ, ephemeral or permanent sculptures/installations, which attempt to redefine abstraction, its formal identity and its narrative scope. She, collects images, forms, stories, which she uses to manipulate ideas and materials, in order to deploy pallets of colors and shapes in which the body is brought to wander.

Meret Oppenheim (*1913, Germany – 1985, Switzerland) was an artist and photographer, ember of the Surrealist movement during the 1920s. She was born in Germany, but moved to Switzerland as a child. Oppenheim's work focused on the sexuality and exploitation of women, a theme can be seen repeatedly in her paintings as well as her sculptures, in which she used regular objects posed as women to make her statements. She is considered one of Switzerland’s most important female artista and her work is found in renowned international museums and private collections. 

Franz West (*1947 - 2012, Austria) From abstract and interactive sculpture to furniture and collage, Franz West’s oeuvre possesses a character that is at once lighthearted and deeply philosophical. Manipulating everyday materials and imagery in order to examine art’s relation to social experience, West revolutionized the interplay of concealment and exposure, action and reaction, both in and outside the gallery. Public collections including Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; Tate, London; Albertina, Vienna; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; Philadelphia Museum of Art; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC; and Museum of Modern Art, New York. He was awarded the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the 54th Biennale di Venezia in 2011.