Olivia Abächerli
the center and the other (title in progress), 2023/2024

Olivia Abächerli’s work often contains cartographic elements, a means of communicating information in a spatially focused manner. Her practice includes video animations, wall paintings, as well as drawings, which usually take the form of a mind map. It is a compilation of terms, explanations, symbols and questions that concern the artist herself. First presented at the Kunsthalle Luzern in 2023 and then at the Kunsthalle Bern in May 2024 as part of the Aeschliman Corti-Stipendium exhibition, the work is now being expanded while reassessing the original mural seen on the ground floor of the institution. The piece shows the entanglement of the global and the personal and presents this as an exemplary subjectivity. At the same time, the artist shows the interconnectedness between the big themes of contemporary life: queerness and identity, care labour, concepts of nationhood, colonialism, racism, pollution and the mundane of everyday life in Switzerland. What we see on the wall also relates, in a non-hierarchical way, to the urgent planetary questions of citizens around the world, and to the repercussions of everything. This way of working allows us to connect and find themes to engage with and expand on.

Olivia Abächerli (*1992) received the main grant of the Aeschlimann Corti Scholarship for her wall painting the centre and the other (2023), in May 2024. Starting from her original work, she draws directly onto the white walls of the Kunsthalle Bern during opening hours, usually on Wednesday afternoons. The continuous and open working process allows the artist to respond to current events and to connect with the public.