Valentin Jeck
On the occasion of the exhibition “Peter Hächler – Metamorphosen” in the Museum Haus Konstruktiv in 2015, the Swiss photographer Valentin Jeck (born 1964 in Basel, Switzerland) agreed to create an exclusive artist’s edition (Jahresgabe) for the members and sponsors of the Museum Haus Konstruktiv. Jeck’s photographs reflect an intense engagement with Peter Hächler’s works and succeed in capturing their multifaceted character. The subject of the artist’s edition is a study that Hächler made for his 16-part work “Formation carré” (1993), which was shown at the Museum Haus Konstruktiv and is now part of its collection. Jeck photographed one of the 16 objects from different perspectives, choosing four of those views for his 2015 artist’s edition.
Regarding formal aesthetics, Peter Hächler was one of the most renowned and radical Swiss sculptors of his generation. He realized a large number of public sculptures in Switzerland, and his oeuvre is particularly characterized by a geometric vocabulary of forms reduced to a few basic elements, like the rhombohedron, or three- and four-sided prisms. These so-called mono forms have been intuitively and playfully assembled into complex and often multipartite structures in which they have been turned, compressed, twisted, and stretched to create surprising, visually challenging results. Martino Stierli, the curator for architecture and design at the MoMA in New York, remarked in the catalogue for the exhibition at Museum Haus Konstruktiv that these objects not only incorporate a dynamic moment; they also encourage beholders to comprehend the works visually and cognitively in a gradual process while walking around them. In Valentin Jeck’s artist’s edition, the seamless transformation of a rectangle into a triangle can be seen in Hächler’s study, the optic dimensions of which have been impressively captured by the photographer.
Evelyne Bucher
Regarding formal aesthetics, Peter Hächler was one of the most renowned and radical Swiss sculptors of his generation. He realized a large number of public sculptures in Switzerland, and his oeuvre is particularly characterized by a geometric vocabulary of forms reduced to a few basic elements, like the rhombohedron, or three- and four-sided prisms. These so-called mono forms have been intuitively and playfully assembled into complex and often multipartite structures in which they have been turned, compressed, twisted, and stretched to create surprising, visually challenging results. Martino Stierli, the curator for architecture and design at the MoMA in New York, remarked in the catalogue for the exhibition at Museum Haus Konstruktiv that these objects not only incorporate a dynamic moment; they also encourage beholders to comprehend the works visually and cognitively in a gradual process while walking around them. In Valentin Jeck’s artist’s edition, the seamless transformation of a rectangle into a triangle can be seen in Hächler’s study, the optic dimensions of which have been impressively captured by the photographer.
Evelyne Bucher
Works by Valentin Jeck
