Werner Neuhaus – In The Zone

Description

No entry allowed. Those who visit Werner Neuhaus's exhibition «In The Zone» are doing something forbidden. They enter an asbestos remediation zone. In the exhibition space in Burgdorf, the artist has recreated a construction site situation – with protective sluices, barriers, and the atmosphere of a place where mostly foreign people dispose of an invisible danger from our built environment. «In the Zone» focuses on the people behind the protective suits and masks: asbestos removers, their work, their risks, and their life stories. Images, sound, film, and artifacts come together in an exhibition that is less to be observed than to be experienced. The visitor leaves the safe distance of the exhibition room and becomes part of a zone that is normally closed off to them. The focus is on asbestos – a material that has shaped the construction and industrial history of the 20th century and whose effects are still felt today. But Neuhaus is less interested in the material itself than in the people who deal with its remnants. They perform a socially necessary job and often remain invisible. Werner Neuhaus's choice of this topic is no coincidence. The sculptor living in Emmental has been working with wood for decades and has established a distinctive place in Swiss art with his unconventional, often monumental sculptures. At the same time, he knows the world of asbestos removal from personal experience and is himself an asbestos worker. This combination of art and working world gives «In The Zone» an unusual immediacy. «In The Zone» is not just an exhibition about asbestos. It is a meeting of art with a hidden, dangerous working world. Welcome «In The Zone». Admission is free. Source: Verein Hinto.ch License: CC BY-SA 4.0