Campus - 14.02.2025 - 08:00
‘Viewers can become part of my picture here,’ says Zurich artist Ingo Giezendanner. He is currently painting a mural on the HSG campus that is over six metres long and two and a half metres high. He has chosen the characteristic, strictly structured concrete that characterises the HSG buildings as his canvas. Giezendanner is transforming an entire hallway near the cafeteria into street scenes from various world cities with fine brushstrokes.
The painting will eventually envelop viewers in the hallway from two opposite walls. Smaller, framed sketches on the wall add another layer.
Giezendanner's painting is one of two new artworks that will be added to the art collection at the HSG in February 2025. This collection includes over 50 works that are accessible to the public, including pieces by Alberto Giacometti, Joan Miró, Gerhard Richter and Tony Cragg.
Giezendanner's painting is one of two new artworks that will be added to the art collection at the HSG in February 2025. This collection includes over 50 works that are accessible to the public, including pieces by Alberto Giacometti, Joan Miró, Gerhard Richter and Tony Cragg.
Giezendanner transfers sketches that he made during trips to Tokyo, Istanbul, Milan, Hong Kong and Karachi, enlarged on the concrete wall. ‘I wander through cities with my sketchbook and sometimes spend hours on a street corner for my drawings,’ says Giezendanner. The sketches show details of dense urban life such as traffic lights, shop windows, advertising and technical installations. His picture at the HSG is created entirely by hand in acrylic paints. His style, says Giezendanner, was inspired by comics and street art, among other things. He has already painted several large-format murals in public spaces. For example, in 2024 he painted a 10 x 13-metre mural on the firewall of a private building in Zurich-Enge, and in 2015 he created a hidden object scene entitled ‘The World. Here with you.’ at the Triemli City Hospital in Zurich.
A new work has also been on display at SQUARE since February 2025. It was created by Zurich-based artist Klaudia Schifferle. The acrylic-painted canvas LALÜ-LALÜ (170 x 230 cm) was created in 2011. ‘So far, the original has only been exhibited once, years ago at Art Basel,’ Klaudia Schifferle reveals. ‘Unfortunately, it was placed in a narrow corridor where it couldn't develop its full effect.’ At SQUARE, it can now be seen.
The artist visited the site in summer 2024 to identify a suitable place in the building. ‘It was important to me to find a place where it would be visible from a distance and where people would have time to look at it in peace. The image should also be able to look back at the viewer and communicate with them. This is how interaction is created.’ The idea for LALÜ-LALÜ goes back to the time when Klaudia Schifferle played the bass and sang in the post-punk band Kleenex, later LiLiPUT, which she co-founded. ‘It was inspired by the view from the stage into the audience.’
Here, too, art at the HSG builds social bridges: from the audience at a punk concert in the early 1980s to the HSG students of the 2020s. The picture also conjures up additional associations for Prof. em. Yvette Sanchez, President of the Art Commission: ‘The painting can also be interpreted as a reflection of the lack of space for students on the HSG campus. Especially during the semester, everything is a bit cramped here. There are sometimes so many people that it's hard to get through, especially during breaks.’
