The final weeks of the exhibition “Acts of Friendship – Act 1&2” at the Migros Museum are drawing to a close, and with them the last weekly Hanging Around sessions in the message salon caravan.
On this occasion, Esther Eppstein presents an exclusive compilation of videos from the message salon videoclub, the collection of VHS video cassettes in the caravan, projected for the first time in this form. The selected videos have a direct connection to message salon and Esther Eppstein and the active time in the caravan, 1998 to 2000. Later, Esther Eppstein invites you to a discussion in front of the caravan.
“message salon Wohnwagen 1998-2000” is a work of art and a documentation of Esther Eppstein’s art practice message salon, as well as the Zurich art scene of the nineties, based on message salon as a circle of friends, art space, network, scene and platform.
The caravan was purchased by the Migros Museum for its collection in 2001 as a self-contained work of art. The work “message salon caravan 1998-2000” is also a time capsule; the temporal distance opens up a new perspective on it.
In a conversation in front of the caravan, Esther Eppstein is interested in the thoughts of the generation that experiences the caravan today as a work of art in a museum without ever having been part of it. What effect do message salon Wohnwagen and Esther Eppstein’s art practice have on the younger generation, are there connections, overlaps, inspiration, criticism?
Etienne Eisele, Noah Merzbacher and Sophie Nadler were born in Zurich at the time when “message salon Wohnwagen (1998-2000)” was stationed in Appenzell, Zurich and Fribourg.
During the 2020 pandemic, Esther Eppstein met the three friends at an art event at Kulti Wetzikon, where they began a casual friendship, meeting here and there in the Zurich art scene, talking and discussing art, art-making and the life of an artist on walks, at art exhibitions or over coffee. On the occasion of the Prix Meret Oppenheim 2021, Esther Eppstein asks Noah Merzbacher to write her laudatory speech and present it at the award ceremony in Basel.
Noah Merzbacher, born in Zurich in 1999, is studying Fine Art and Art Theory at the University of London Goldsmiths. In addition to an artistic practice that deals with text/image languages, he writes texts that range between philosophy and pop poetics. Sophie Nadler, born in Zurich in 2000, and Etienne Eisele, born in Zurich in 1999, have been working as a collective since 2021. Their artistic practice moves between visual art, theatre and film. Both are studying fine arts and mediation at Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts.
message salon videoclub at the Migros Museum campsite. Selection Esther Eppstein
1. 1000$ man. Visit to the 1000$-man’s in Lucerne, time-lapse documentation. Davix/Fleck, 1999
2. the message salon advertising block. Artists promote their video. message salon videoclub, Zurich, 1997
3. Köppl/Zacek documentation Performances ‘98. excerpt. Köppl/Zacek, 1999
4. Sony Appenzell. Video made in the message salon holiday colony Appenzell. Detail. Serge Pinkus, 1998
5. Performance in the bathtub at the Migros Museum Zurich. Susann Walder, 1997
6. petit déjeuner. Kerim Seiler in Fribourg, documentation, collaboration pac / message salon. Detail. Pac, Fribourg, 2000
7. Treppstein- the videos 1995-97. from starving bohémiennes to stars of international art galleries and icons in the film and music business. Treppstein cool, Treppstein ensemble, Treppstein the Soundtrack. Music Kay Zee, Stini Arn&Jenny Schrider. Treppstein, Zurich, 1999
8. San Dance Company. Fatboy Slim ‘praise you’. San Keller, Glattzentrum Wallisellen, 1999
9. mutant.®13. guliGuli in the pink cybercage. Davix, Lucerne, 1994
10. -30°. While the car doesn’t move, the woman cuts up fresh meat. Davix, Lucerne, 1994
11. Yes Appizöll. Frequency. Video made in the message salon holiday colony in Appenzell. Stini Arn and Nicoletta Wartmann, 1998
12. Ethnotape. Video created at the message salon holiday colony in Appenzell. Selina Trepp, 1998
13. Private blend. Music video, installation at the message salon caravan, Pfingstweidstrasse, Zurich, 1999. Taylor /Trepp, USA, 2000
14. One camping long message salon. Promotional video for a summer together at the message salon campsite in Zurich’s industrial district. Esther Eppstein, Zurich, 1999