For Susann Walder, art is life and life is art. She directly addresses current issues, linking political and social events, headlines and trends to her personal life situation. On her forays through flea markets and second-hand shops, the artist discovers objects, costumes and images that she combines with her own drawings, photos, music or sculptures in installations. Susann Walder’s performances and installations are full of humour and criticism. Susann Walder elevates the absurdity and madness of modern life, media overload, political propaganda, consumerism and kitsch to a touching, garishly shrill ode with a directness that immediately strikes a chord.
Susann Walder sees herself as a political artist and a fighter for freedom, including in art. With ‘mir sind d’Stadt’ (we are the city), she mocks the city police, who are very present on Langstrasse and are currently working with great zeal and overzealousness to gain respect with their ‘Respekt’ campaign.
In the bitingly ironic work ‘Susann Walder im Haifischbecken’ (Susann Walder in the shark tank), the artist presents herself as a maltreated doll with a silent scream, exposed to a brightly coloured, cuddly plush shark in a paddling pool as a metaphor for the art world.
Susann Walder has been active in Zurich as an artist, musician and performer since the 1980s. She has appeared with performances and art objects at all previous locations of the message salon in Zurich and in the caravan, as well as at the Helmhaus Zurich, Kunsthaus Zurich, Migros Museum and, in 1996, at the first Manifesta in Rotterdam.