The last resident of message salon embassy Zurich Nord has just arrived at the Hunzikerareal.
Adnan Softić, born in Sarajevo in 1975, lives and works in Hamburg. The artist will use his stay in Zurich to continue researching for planned and future projects. Among other things, Adnan Softic is working on his idea for an independent platform to bring together local, migrant and refugee artists. Under the name “room to negotiate”, he plans to open an artspace, meeting point and laboratory for visual and performance art, an experimental production site.
Adnan Softić makes films, directs theatre, mounts exhibitions, writes books and researches societal and political conflicts, history and architecture, memory and documentation. The artist recently received the 3Sat jury prize at the Oberhausen short film festival in Germany for his latest film project, «Bigger Than Life».
This successful art film earned Adnan Softić an invitation to Sarajevo’s international film festival in mid-August. The film is about “Skopje 2014”, a Macedonian government project for a brand-new million-euro city centre in its capital, which is made to look antique. In «Bigger Than Life», modern-day Skopje is transformed into an excavation site, which allows viewers to see how history is made, antiquity is constructed, and historical exceptionalism created through imitation. The lines between truth and fiction become blurry, all in real time.
The studio at message salon embassy Zurich Nord will serve as a jumping off point for encounters and conversations with Zurich culture workers and neighbours from the Hunzikerareal. Adnan Softić will explore the Zurich art scene with Madame l’Ambassadeur and attend the Zurich Theaterspektakel and the opening of the art season.
On Sunday 30th Septemeber the last zine vernissage will be held at message salon embassy Zurch Nord. After the end of Adnan Softić’s stay, the message salon embassy Kunst am Bau project will come to an end and Madame l’Ambassadeur will bid farewell to the Hunzikerareal with a little get-together.
Sunday, 23 September, 3 pm: Adnan Softić visits Material in the context of the Werkschau cantonal grant exhibition at Haus Konstruktiv in Zurich. Reading and lecture performance with Adnan Softić.(in German)
Sunday 30th September, 4-9 pm: Farewell party for Adnan Softić at message salon embassy Zurich Nord with zine vernissage, soup and tea, and film screening at 8pm.