I have always thought that explosions conceal and create possibilities for sculpture. For me an explosion was always a kind of mental liberation. The pressure, then the fear. After the explosion you feel incredibly free. I was just interested in that.
From Paula van den Bosch in conversation with Roman Signer in Roman Signer, Phaidon Contemporary Artists, first published 2006
Explosions can be highly aesthetic. I understand them as a complex form of sculpture because an infinite number of forms are produced within extremely short periods of time; every moment looks different. The perfect sculpture is a transformation, a process.
From 1000 Words: Roman Signer, Rachel Kushner, Artforum April 2002
Roman Signer has been redefining sculpture for more than 40 years. His ‘sculptural actions’ involve meticulously planned physical events, documented in photography and film. His work explores relationships between sudden energy releases and calm, between order and chaos. Traditional sculptural materials have been replaced by sand, water, fire and wind and by elemental forces such as tension and gravity. Signer exploits the possible uses and limitations of everyday objects such as umbrellas, bottles, tables, chairs and candles, elaborately building expectation in events that combine planning and chance. The outcomes are at once inevitable and surprising.
Born in Appenzell, Switzerland in 1938, Signer started his career as an artist in the late sixties, at a time when Conceptualism, Land Art, Minimalism and Process Art converged. He has been making films of his actions since the mid-seventies. His work has been presented in numerous museums and galleries worldwide and has been selected for prestigious international exhibitions such as the Venice Biennale, where he represented Switzerland in 1999, Skulptur Projekte Münster (1997) as well as Documenta 8 in Kassel where during Action in front of the Orangerie he catapulted 350,000 sheets of paper into the air simultaneously with an explosive charge.
This special exhibition of 74 short films offers a rare opportunity to see a substantial body of work by this exceptional artist, who occupies a unique position in the history of sculpture. The programme comprises 45 films made between 1987 and 2008 (shown on a monitor) and 29 films made between 2008 and 2019 (projected in CAST’s screening space on a loop).