The artist Davix and message salon have a shared history. Davix has been a recurring companion in Esther Eppstein’s art spaces since the beginning and has shown exhibitions in all locations since 1995. For the artist, message salon is not simply an exhibition space, but a driving force and motivation for the realisation of exhibition projects.
Davix, a video and net artist from the very beginning in the 1990s and drummer for the internationally successful Lucerne post-punk band “Stevens Nude Club”, has been devoting himself almost exclusively to painting for a few years now. The artist spends a lot of time in his studios in Berlin and Lucerne. His painting is slow, drawn out, a creative process.
Painting is the theme and Davix quotes the abstract-expressive painting of the sixties and pop art with acrylic on canvas, influenced by techno, video clips, computer games and graffiti. Abstract, strictly geometric colour surfaces compete with expressive brushstrokes, bright, flashy neon fights for attention with melancholic dark green.
Davix’s painting is intense and manic. The eye is irritated, flurries of colour shimmer, small and large canvases swirl orgiastically, large canvases mark a dominant presence. In addition to abstract paintings, the artist shows portraits of people who have played an important role in his life, such as Thomas Hösli, the legendary songwriter, entertainer and singer of “Stevens Nude Club”, who died far too young.
The origins of his artistic career are rooted in punk and the underground, and as an artist of his time, there remains a mistrust of appropriation and selling out. The title of the show “message salon forever” is an ode to the message salon and a cultural-political statement about the importance of free, experimental spaces for an artist’s career.
Davix has invited his friend, musician and composer Trixa Arnold, to open the exhibition with her performance “Every record is a good record”. Trixa Arnold takes on the musical scrap heaps on vinyl: True gems can be found in discarded and spurned record collections! Using converted record players and mechanical effects, the musician manipulates the records, alienates the familiar and discovers the unexpected. The result is entertaining, wild compositions of witty and ingenious arrangements.
An artist publication will be published to accompany the exhibition:
Publisher: Davix & Edition Fink, Text: Bea Stierli, Design: Hi-Megi Zumstein & Claudio Barandun
© 2012: Davix &Edition Fink, Edition: 250 copies.