Quynh Dong was born in North Vietnam (* 1982) and has lived in Switzerland since the age of eight. She underwent her art training in Biel, Bern and Zurich and was awarded several art prizes (Aeschlimann-Corti, Binz39, Rijksakademie). Among other things, the artist works as a performer and singer and is known for her wonderful watercolors and videos.

In the video work “trong rng chui, In the banana forest (or garden)”, Quynh Dong took a look at the lacquer work by the painter Nguyen Gia Tris and the story in the banana trees in Nguyen Tuan’s novel ” Echo and Shadow Upon a Time” (Vang bong mot thoi) get her inspiration.

So she uses different elements of culture to combine and destroy them, to think about how traditional or contemporary cultural patterns came about and creates a lacquer picture in the language of the moving images. Seven dancers perform in a butoh manner between the banana trees. They blend in with nature, like wandering souls or like the dried banana leaves in the garden. You can hear soft sonar pieces that are quieter than the sound of the banana forest.

In addition to the video, parts of the work “Please talk to me” are on display. The objects in the form of chamwae (Korean melons) are made of white clay and porcelain. Dong interacts with the material like with a performing partner. The factors of time, duration and space are always unpredictable. The clay has a different material in each drying process. The different drying moments are related to time, space and weather. With each piece, Dong begins a new conversation. The glazing and the firing process manipulate and transform the material.

After an intensive examination of non-representational painting (strip compositions), Sereina Steinemann (* 1984, Richterswil) has been dealing with figurative painting for several years. She is very interested in the subject; in what immediately surrounds it. She paints with acrylic on cotton or linen, mounted on a stretcher. The motifs are reduced-symbolic, figuratively-symbolically painted, often with borrowings from the medium comic, as far as the colors or the design language are concerned. The objects sometimes tip into the abstract. This is exactly what interests her that certain images move between abstraction and object. Her conceptual stance is often shown when dealing with titles. They should open something, add something to the work without narrowing it down. She is interested in loose telling when compiling series of works. The works for series were all created individually; she only puts them into context afterwards. The connecting title of the works can begin a narrative, but it should be loose enough so that there is enough space for the viewer’s own pictures.

The artist also deals with questions about composition and image background as well as the economical suggestion of space. Sometimes the only finely primed canvas forms the background, as in «Mickey». Sometimes she paints dense backgrounds, as in the picture «ladder». Steinemann tries to explore the interplay of such different images when hanging them. Such neighborhoods can create tensions and breaks.