Swiss artist Urs Fischer brings energy of love to Mexico

By Monica Rubalcava

Mexico City, Mar 31 (EFE).- The sensations and emotions of love and life, and the energies they create and expend, inhabit “Urs Fischer: Lovers,” the Swiss-born artist’s first individual show in Mexico.

“I was never thinking much about love when I was a kid. You know, you just assume you’re gonna get it from your parents,” Fischer said during a press conference Thursday at Mexico City’s Museo Jumex.

“It’s like what we do in this life and how do we relate to ourselves and how do we relate to others, and it becomes pretty clear when you’re in a place where you have more love for everything, life is better,” the 48-year-old artist said.

The exhibit, which is set to run from April 2 to Sept. 18, is meant to convey that sentiment through “an immersive experience.”

“The Lovers #2,” a sculpture 10 m (33 ft) tall that Fischer created specifically for the show as Jumex, stands just outside the museum entrance and invites the spectator to enter a zone of play, energy, and “entertainment.”

Curated by Italian writer Francesco Bonami, the exhibit features more than four-dozen works representing 20 years of Fischer’s output in mediums that include sculpture, photography, drawing, painting, and publishing.

The pieces were assembled from public and private collections and from the artist’s personal archive.

“We have known each other since 1996 and I don’t want to exaggerate, but I think I can say that we’re friends,” Bonami told Efe of his long acquaintance with Fischer. “We speak a lot and it has been natural to work together. I always listen and try to understand his vision and what we want to do.”

The artist said that he and Bonami share a “humble” attitude about the possibilities of artistic expression.

“We also like art to just be art and not having to be this and this and that and about society right now,” Fischer said. “So there is no overarching construct in the way we approach this show, which is one possible way of doing it, but I think we just let things be.”

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