Marc Bauer, Mal Ȇtre / Performance

Exhibition dates: 12 September – 17 November 2019
Private View: Wednesday 11 September, 6.30 – 8.30pm

Taking migration and sea voyage as his subject matter, Swiss artist Marc Bauer will receive his first solo exhibition in a UK public gallery at Drawing Room, London, opening September 12, 2019. 

Bauer’s new series of drawings feature people on boats throughout history and explores the plight of the individual and their portrayal. Mal Ȇtre / Performance consists of iconic images, from ancient Greece to contemporary media. Examples include imagery of an Attican vase (circa 480-470BC) in the collection of the British Museum and depicting the ship of Odysseus passing the Sirens; 15th century Catholic ex-voto paintings that were used to help ward off sea faring disasters; Théodore Géricault’s famous The Raft of the Medusa (1818–19); and finally images from the media coverage of Aquarius, the boat that rescued migrants in the Mediterranean Sea in 2018.  

All of the works are drawn in graphite, and take the form of two looped animations, a large site-specific wall drawing and large and small scale works on paper. Together these drawings create an installation that address the exhibition space as a larger composition. Using the slow and cumulative process of drawing and erasing, Bauer’s project brings the past into the present in his investigation of humanity. The first part of the exhibition title, Mal Ȇtre, roughly translates from the French to ‘being in a bad way’.  This condition unites images of people in transit across seas today and in the distant past.  Mal Ȇtre also refers to a sense of unease the viewer may experience when viewing these images, with the second part of the title, Performance, referring to the various roles we adopt as viewers.

For press information please contact: 

Suzie Jones
[email protected]
0207 7708 2554

Notes to Editors

About the artist:

Marc Bauer (b. 1975) studied at the Ecole Supérieure d’Art Visuel in Geneva and the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten, in Amsterdam. He lives and works in Berlin and Zurich. His work was featured in numerous group shows, including the Centre Pompidou in Paris and the Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst in Zurich, and in many solo exhibitions, including the Kunstmuseum St. Gallen, the Centre Culturel Suisse, Paris and Frac Auvergne, Clermont-Ferrand. Marc Bauer was shown as a Special Project Artist during Frieze London 2017 and he has exhibited at the 21st Bienniale of Sydney (2018).

About Drawing Room:

Drawing Room is Europe’s leading gallery for contemporary drawing. It is renowned for stimulating debate around the nature and purpose of drawing today. Through free exhibitions, artist’s talks, practical workshops and a unique library for international contemporary drawing, the gallery aims to nurture the production of drawings and promote understanding of them. Contemporary works are exhibited alongside key historical examples to suggest drawing’s long tradition and role in artistic innovation. Drawing Room’s research and exhibitions are shown at major institutions throughout the UK and abroad.