ARCO MADRID 2024
ARCO MADRID 2024
DUO PRESENTATION
DIMITRA CHARAMANDAS | RALPH BÜRGIN
BOOTH 9D23
MARCH 6-10
IFEMA MADRID
We are delighted to announce our second participation at ARCO Madrid in March 2024 with a duo presentation by Dimitra Charamandas (*1988, lives and works in Solothurn, Switzerland) and Ralph Bürgin (*1980, lives and works in Basel, Switzerland).
Charamandas’ practice emphasizes the sensual and tactile, using different visual languages to convey the tension between fragility and strength, care and abuse, beauty and brutality. In her large-scale paintings and sculptures, the artist approaches landscapes as a series of bodies: a rugged coastal path tracing the ends of an island; a gentle slope leading to a smoking crater; a body of water separating continents, enabling or impeding the flow of real, human bodies. By traveling slowly and observing
minute, cyclical changes, Charamandas’ practice embodies an ecofeminist worldview that challenges a prevailing value system of speed and efficiency in the name of productivity.
Ralph Bürgin addresses such universal issues as the relationship between humans and nature and the redefinition of the modern masculine. In contrast to Charamandas, the research does not take place through traveling, but through an exploration of the interior. The almost surrealistic processing of dreams and the exploration of art history provide the basis for Bürgin’s painting.
Dimitra Charamandas
Inland body of water, 2023
acrylic on canvas
210 x 170 cm
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Dimitra Charamandas
Baby pond, 2024
acrylic on canvas
150 x 210 cm
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Dimitra Charamandas
Auricular whorl, 2023
ceramics burned and glazed
30 x 40 x 70 cm
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Ralph Bürgin
Frühlingsabend, 2024
oil on canvas
200 x 140 cm
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Ralph Bürgin
Presence, 2024
oil on canvas
145 x 185 cm
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Ralph Bürgin
Toto’s House, 2024
oil on canvas
95 x 140 cm
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Dimitra Charamandas (*1988 Solothurn, Switzerland, lives and works in Solothurn and Athens) completed an MA in Fine Arts at the Institute Art Gender Natur, Basel in 2022. She previously studied at the Lucerne School of Art and Design (BA of Arts, 2013).
Her most recent solo exhibitions include Tides, Kunstmuseum Solothurn (2023), Little inlets, Helvetia Art Foyer, Basel (2023), Body of Water, Body of Stone, Gypsum Gallery, Cairo (2022), Do not take me for granite, Ann Mazzotti Gallery, Basel (2022), Bassa Marea, Museo Castello San Materno, Ascona (2022). Her work was included in several group shows at Kunsthaus Baselland, Muttens, Switzerland; Graphisches Kabinett Kunstmuseum Solothurn, Switzerland, Kunstmuseum Olten, Switzerland; Christoph Merian Stiftung, Münchenstein, Switzerland; Kunsthalle Luzern, Switzerland; Kunsthaus Grenchen, Switzerland; Project Space Sfera, Athens, Greece; Kasko Basel, Switzerland; and Forum Stadtpark Graz, Austria.
She has organised food gatherings in Frankfurt, Athens, Lucerne and Basel and is co-founder and part of the collectives Espacio Pacha with Irene Trujillo and Quince Collective with Johanna Schaible. Her works can be found in institutional and private collections. A solo exhibition at Livie Gallery is planned for September 2024.
Ralph Bürgin (*1980 Basel, lives in Basel, Switzerland) studied at the Academy of Art and Design in Zurich and Basel, where he graduated in 2018 with a Master in Fine Arts. The painter and sculptor lives in Basel and works in his studio in France (Alsace).
Ralph Bürgin was recently awarded with the Alexander Clavel Stiftung award in Switzerland, and his works have been on view at Kunsthaus Pasquart in Biel in 2022, as well as at Kunsthalle Zurich and Kunsthaus Baselland in 2023.
Recent solo exhibitions include The Great Escape at Livie Gallery, Zurich, Switzerland, 2023 (with publication), Watching a Peaceful River at Galerie Barbara Seiler, Zurich, Switzerland, 2020, La place at Centre culturel suisse, Paris, France, 2019; and Pieces and Shadows at Kunstverein Diessenhofen, Switzerland, 2017. Ralph Bürgin’s work has been included in numerous group exhibitions, including 2023 at Kunsthalle Zurich and Kunsthaus Baselland, 2022 at Kunsthaus Pasquart, 2021 at Wilde Gallery, Geneva, Switzerland; 2018 at Kunsthaus Baselland, Muttenz, Switzerland; 2016 at Ping/Pong, Basel/Miami, Los Angeles, USA; 2014 in “Kunstkredit Basel-Stadt, Werkbeiträge 2013” at Kunsthalle Basel, Switzerland.
In 2019, a publication was dedicated to the artist as part of the Cahier d’Artistes series published by the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia, with a text by Felicity Lunn. The artist has also realized several projects in public spaces, including Gasträume 2020 in Zurich, curated by Christoph Doswald, and “I, You, You, Me, We” at Heuwaage in Basel, Switzerland in 2022, initiated by Kunstkredit Basel-Stadt in collaboration with the Department of Construction and Transport.
Installation views: Nicola Moriuttu
With kind support by
