Beat Streuli
Encyclopedia
Beat Streuli is a Swiss visual artist who works with photo and video based media. His photographs, videos and window installations have been exhibited in galleries and museums internationally. Permanent installations of his work include those at the Lufthansa Aviation Center, Frankfurt
Airport, Germany, the ETH University, Zurich
, Switzerland, the Style Company Building, Osaka
, Japan, and the immigration hall of Dallas Fort Worth International Airport, Texas, USA.
and Zurich and the Hochschule der Künste in Berlin
where he lived until 1987. Studio grants followed at Cité des Arts and Fondation Cartier in Paris
(1985/86, 89 and 92), at Istituto Svizzero in Rome
(1988/89), in London
(1997), and at P.S. 1 in New York
(1993).
Since then Streuli has spent time and worked in cities such as New York
, Sydney
, Düsseldorf
, Zürich
, and Brussels
.
to Athens
and New York. Streuli’s photographs focus systematically on ordinary street dwellers, and the contemporary ‘flaneurs’ going about their daily business. The heterogeneity of the crowd, as the central component of the cultural dynamism of modernity, and the position of the individual in the crowd, lie at the core of Streuli’s practice. He works with a variety of presentation media, from large-format colour photographs, and installations of slide and video projections, to billboards and large-scale window installations on the facades of public buildings.
His camera freezes or distills the flow of everyday life, the movement of people in the city, reflecting on daily reality from an entirely anthropocentric perspective. Photographing with the use of a telephoto lens, Streuli captures his subjects in an unguarded state, bringing them in close proximity to the viewer, lending them an iconic aura which transcends the ordinariness of the scene portrayed. Although they remain anonymous, equal under the lens of the camera, a sense of individual lives and diversity emerges. The viewers are implicated through the shared experience of negotiating public space, the natural state of watching and being scrutinized, of moving and paying attention.
Group:
Frankfurt
Frankfurt am Main , commonly known simply as Frankfurt, is the largest city in the German state of Hesse and the fifth-largest city in Germany, with a 2010 population of 688,249. The urban area had an estimated population of 2,300,000 in 2010...
Airport, Germany, the ETH University, Zurich
Zürich
Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is located in central Switzerland at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich...
, Switzerland, the Style Company Building, Osaka
Osaka
is a city in the Kansai region of Japan's main island of Honshu, a designated city under the Local Autonomy Law, the capital city of Osaka Prefecture and also the biggest part of Keihanshin area, which is represented by three major cities of Japan, Kyoto, Osaka and Kobe...
, Japan, and the immigration hall of Dallas Fort Worth International Airport, Texas, USA.
Life
From 1977 to 1983, Beat Streuli attended the Schools of Design in BaselBasel
Basel or Basle In the national languages of Switzerland the city is also known as Bâle , Basilea and Basilea is Switzerland's third most populous city with about 166,000 inhabitants. Located where the Swiss, French and German borders meet, Basel also has suburbs in France and Germany...
and Zurich and the Hochschule der Künste in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
where he lived until 1987. Studio grants followed at Cité des Arts and Fondation Cartier in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
(1985/86, 89 and 92), at Istituto Svizzero in Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
(1988/89), in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
(1997), and at P.S. 1 in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
(1993).
Since then Streuli has spent time and worked in cities such as New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
, Düsseldorf
Düsseldorf
Düsseldorf is the capital city of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and centre of the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region.Düsseldorf is an important international business and financial centre and renowned for its fashion and trade fairs. Located centrally within the European Megalopolis, the...
, Zürich
Zürich
Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is located in central Switzerland at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich...
, and Brussels
Brussels
Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...
.
Work
Beat Streuli is known for his street portraiture, which has documented the anonymous urban citizen in various cities all over the world, from Sydney and TokyoTokyo
, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...
to Athens
Athens
Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...
and New York. Streuli’s photographs focus systematically on ordinary street dwellers, and the contemporary ‘flaneurs’ going about their daily business. The heterogeneity of the crowd, as the central component of the cultural dynamism of modernity, and the position of the individual in the crowd, lie at the core of Streuli’s practice. He works with a variety of presentation media, from large-format colour photographs, and installations of slide and video projections, to billboards and large-scale window installations on the facades of public buildings.
His camera freezes or distills the flow of everyday life, the movement of people in the city, reflecting on daily reality from an entirely anthropocentric perspective. Photographing with the use of a telephoto lens, Streuli captures his subjects in an unguarded state, bringing them in close proximity to the viewer, lending them an iconic aura which transcends the ordinariness of the scene portrayed. Although they remain anonymous, equal under the lens of the camera, a sense of individual lives and diversity emerges. The viewers are implicated through the shared experience of negotiating public space, the natural state of watching and being scrutinized, of moving and paying attention.
Selected exhibitions
Solo:- 2010 Galerie Erna Hécey, Brussels, Murray Guy, New York
- 2008 Mac's, Musée des Arts Contemporains, Grand-Hornu, Jordan Festival, billboard installation, Petra, Baltic, Sage, Gateshead
- 2007 Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Zurich, Galerie Conrads, Düsseldorf, Museum der bildenden Künste, Leipzig
- 2006 Bunkier Sztuki, Krakow, University of Massachusetts, University Gallery, Amherst, Dogenhaus Galerie, Leipzig, Galerie Wilma Tolksdorf, Berlin
- 2004 Jablonka Galerie, Cologne, LACE, Los Angeles, Roberts & Tilton Gallery, Los Angeles
- 2002 Palais de TokyoPalais de TokyoThe Palais de Tokyo is a building dedicated to modern and contemporary art, located at 13 avenue du Président-Wilson, near the Trocadéro, in the 16th arrondissement of Paris. The eastern wing of the building belongs the City of Paris and hosts the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris...
, Paris - 2000 Stedelijk MuseumStedelijk MuseumFounded in 1874, the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam is a museum for classic modern and contemporary art in Amsterdam in the Netherlands. It has been housed on the Paulus Potterstraat, next to Museum Square Museumplein and to the Rijksmuseum, Van Gogh Museum and the Concertgebouw, in Amsterdam Zuid...
, Amsterdam, Galleria Civica d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Torino - 1999 Museum of Contemporary Art, ChicagoMuseum of Contemporary Art, ChicagoThe Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago is a contemporary art museum near Water Tower Place in downtown Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, United States. The museum, which was established in 1967, is one of the world's largest contemporary art venues...
, Kunsthalle, Düsseldorf, Kunsthalle, Zurich, Sprengel MuseumSprengel MuseumThe Sprengel Museum in Hanover houses one of the most significant collections of modern art in Germany. It is located in a building designed by Peter and Ursula Trint and Dieter Quast , adjacent to the Maschsee...
, Hannover, Spiral Art Center, Tokyo - 1998 Museu d'Art Contemporani, Barcelona, Yamaguchi Prefecture Museum, Yamaguchi
- 1997 Tate Gallery, London
- 1996 museum in progressMuseum in progressmuseum in progress is a private art association based in Vienna. The association was created in 1990 by Kathrin Messner and Josef Ortner with the aim to develop new presentation forms for contemporary art...
, Vienna, Tinglado Dos, Tarragona, ARC, Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de ParisMusée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de ParisMusée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris is the City of Paris Museum of Modern Art dedicated to the arts of the 20th/21st centuries. It is located at 11 Avenue du Président Wilson in the 16th arrondissement of Paris.-Description:...
, Paris, The New York Kunsthalle, with Adrian Schiess, New York - 1995 Centre d'Art Contemporain / attitudes, Geneva, Galerie Walcheturm, Zurich, Württembergischer Kunstverein, Stuttgart, Le Consortium, Dijon
Group:
- 2009 Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, 'Ich, zweifellos.', Wolfsburg, Kunsthalle WienKunsthalle WienThe Kunsthalle Wien is an institution in Vienna for temporary exhibitions of contemporary international art. It opened in 1992, and was originally located on Karlsplatz, in a container-shaped building designed as a temporary site by the Austrian architect Adolf Krischanitz...
, 'Das Porträt. Photographie als Bühne', Vienna, Museum of Contemporary Art, 'Chicago July 99', Chicago - 2008 Nationalgalerie im Hamburger Bahnhof, 'Sichtbarwerden. Fotografische Werke aus der Friedrich Christian Flick Collection im Hamburger BahnhofHamburger BahnhofHamburger Bahnhof is a former railway station in Berlin, Germany, on Invalidenstraße in the Moabit district opposite the Charité hospital. Today it serves as the Museum für Gegenwart , a contemporary art museum....
', Berlin, Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, 'Fluid Street', Helsinki, Tate ModernTate ModernTate Modern is a modern art gallery located in London, England. It is Britain's national gallery of international modern art and forms part of the Tate group . It is the most-visited modern art gallery in the world, with around 4.7 million visitors per year...
, 'An Urban History of Photography', London, Shanghai Art Museum, 'Memories for Tomorrow', Shanghai, ARC, Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de ParisMusée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de ParisMusée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris is the City of Paris Museum of Modern Art dedicated to the arts of the 20th/21st centuries. It is located at 11 Avenue du Président Wilson in the 16th arrondissement of Paris.-Description:...
, 'Objectivités', Paris, Museum Folkwang, 'An Urban History of Photography', Essen - 2007 Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, 'Swiss Made', Wolfsburg, Stedelijk Museum, 'Mapping the City', Amsterdam, National Gallery of Victoria, 'Guggenheim Collection: 1940s to Now – New York-Venice-Bilbao-Berlin', Melbourne
- 2006 Tate ModernTate ModernTate Modern is a modern art gallery located in London, England. It is Britain's national gallery of international modern art and forms part of the Tate group . It is the most-visited modern art gallery in the world, with around 4.7 million visitors per year...
, 'Opening up art', London, AR/GE Kunst / Galerie Museum, 'consens', Bolzano - 2005 Sharjah Biennale, Sharjah / United Arab Emirates, Yokohama Triennale, Yokohama
- 2003 International Center of PhotographyInternational Center of PhotographyThe International Center of Photography is a photography museum, school, and research center in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States...
, 'Triennial of Photography and Video', New York - 2002 Hirshhorn Museum, 'Open City', Washington D.C., Kunstmuseum Ehrenhof, 'Heute bis jetzt. Im Labor der Bilder', Düsseldorf, Kunsthaus ZürichKunsthaus ZürichThe Kunsthaus Zürich houses one of the most important art museums in Switzerland and Europe, collected by the local Kunstverein, called Zürcher Kunstgesellschaft, and holdings running from the Middle Ages to contemporary art, with an emphasis on Swiss art.Kunsthaus is also the name of the tram stop...
, 'Wallflowers', Zurich - 2001 Museum of Modern Art, 'Restaging the Everyday', San Francisco, Ikon GalleryIkon GalleryThe Ikon Gallery is an English gallery of contemporary art, located in Brindleyplace, Birmingham. It is housed in the Grade II listed, neo-gothic former Oozells Street Board School, designed by John Henry Chamberlain in 1877. The gallery's current director is Jonathan Watkins.Ikon was set up to...
, 'Birmingham', Birmingham, Contemporary Arts Museum, 'Subject Plural', Houston, Museum of Modern Art, 'Open City', Oxford - 2000 Fondation Cartier, 'Le Désert', Paris, Museum für Moderne Kunst, 'Szenenwechsel', Frankfurt a.M., Museum of Contemporary Art, 'The Gift of Hope', Tokyo, Castello di Rivoli, 'Quotidiana', Turin
- 1998 Sydney Biennale, 'Everyday', Sydney