(Mixed media, 2020-2024)
COMPLOTY is the world's first game based on conspiracy theories that actually exist. It has been developed over a period of four years and involved intensive research into conspiracy theories and fake news. The game is full of black humor, twists and dynamics. It also provides the most important facts, the craziest claims and the funniest anecdotes on more than 100 current conspiracy myths. Players slip into the role of the powerful secret elites who are pulling the strings behind the scenes and working towards world domination.
COMPLOTY is a project that combines a wide variety of genres, media and techniques: In addition to texts, graphics and illustrations, 3D design, videos, animations, web content, social media content, AI elements and diffusion strategies are also part of the implementation.
The manifestation of the artwork in the form of a strategy game breaks with the usual expectations of an artwork and at the same time tests an alternative solution with regard to the presentation, perception and reflection of art.
Like the No Show Museum, this project again invites us to reflect on the possibilities and limits of art and to renegotiate what art is (or could be).
Website: www.comploty.com
Trailer: ogy.de/dwd9
Video introduction: ogy.de/qate
(Long-term performance, mixed media, 2015-2019)
The NO SHOW MUSEUM is the world's first museum dedicated to nothingness and its manifold manifestations in the history of art. Its collection comprises around 500 works and documents by 150 international artists of the 20th and 21st centuries.
The museum has given itself the mission of spreading nothing all over the world. It has a mobile exhibition exhibition space in a converted bus. As part of its Nothing World Tour, the NO SHOW MUSEUM has performed around 80 exhibitions in over 30 countries – in galleries and museums, in public spaces and in remote areas. After several months of exhibition tours throughout Europe, North and Central America, the mission was to be continued on a new continent every year. Instead, the pandemic hit in 2020 and put a temporary end to the project.
The No Show Museum participated in the 56th Venice Art Biennale on invitation of Pro Helvetia/Salon Suisse. In 2019, the project received an art award by the City of Zurich.
Online Collection / Website: www.noshowmuseum.com
Trailer 'The Art of Nothing': ogy.de/c4n8
Documentation of the Nothing World Tour: ogy.de/c114
Media Response: Newspaper Articles and Reports
Interviews: Tages-Anzeiger (de), Yale University (en)
Long-term performance, mixed media, 2010 / 2016
(In cooperation with Christof Nüssli & Christoph Oeschger)
Satirical and subersive actions and interventions with various participants, 4.8. - 28.11.10. Launch of the fictional "Organisation zur Lösung der Ausländerfrage" (OLAF / Organization for
the solution of the foreigner question) with a national campaign (posters, website, brochures, propaganda videos, press announcements and reports in newspapers, blogs, radio, TV),
public appearances with the fictional characters Dr. Alois Stocher (Andreas Heusser) and George Klein (Christof Nüssli), national call for a "Volksbefreiung" (people's liberation) with
interactive deportation charts, interventions at press conferences, and implementation of the happening "Nationaler Sammeltag für Ausländer" (collection day for
foreigners) at the parliament square in Bern.
In 2016, Stocher gave another sign of life when he made a recommendation via video from
his holidays in Mauritius in regard to the xenophobic 'enforcement intitiative' by the Swiss People's Party (SVP).
TV-Documentations: SF1 Kulturplatz | ARD
Tagesthemen
Propaganda
videos:
Archive Material, Facebook: Alois Stocher
Media Response:
Newspaper articles and reports about OLAF.
Long-term performance, voodoo on wood, 2015-2016
This branch originates from one of the trees that were felled for the extension of the Kunsthaus Zurich. It was brought to South Africa and treated in Benoni (Johannesburg) by a professional
Voodoo Master with black magic.
The ritual incantations lasted from 3 to 13 december 2015. The magic will start to effect the buyer immediately after the purchase of the branch and will last for at least two years or until the
branch is burnt. The content of the magic is kept strictly secret by the artist.
Note: The artist does not accept responsibility for damage, injuries or casualties caused by the black magic.
Update I (January 2016): The work was sent by post to Zurich for the group show "Vitrine 05" at Die Diele. But, mysteriously, the work never arrived in Zurich.
Update II (April 2016): The stick returned to the sender in Johannesburg.
Update III (July 2016): The return of the stick was followed by horrible weeks and such a run of bad luck as the artist has never experienced it before. At some point, the
suspicion arose that it might have something to do with the cursed stick. In July 2016, he therefore decided to burn the stick and scatter its ashes in the river.
Update IV (September 2016): You can laugh all you want. And maybe it's all just coincidence and superstition. But since the damn stick has gone, the artist's life went back to normal!
Long-term performance, mixed media, 2011
Satirical and subversive actions and interventions with numerous participants, 3.5. to 19.6.2011. launch of the fictional organization "Christian humanitarian asylum-self-help organization"
(CHASOS); national campaign (posters, brochure, website, videos, TV, blogs and newspapers), national petition for ‚art displacement‘, performances with the fictional character pastor
Wilfried Stocher, implementation of the installation "refugee camp Halle32" at the SWISS ART AWARDS-exhibitionduring ART BASEL.
TV-Documentations: ARD Tagesthemen | SWR
Propaganda-Video: Prevention Campaign for Refugees
Archive Material, Facebook: Wilfried Stocher
Performance at Art Basel: Pentecost Sermon
Media Response: Newspaper articles and reports about CHASOS
Performance, mixed media, 2009
In cooperation with Christof Nüssli & Christoph Oeschger, Zürich 2009.
Satirical political actions, 10. - 29.11.2009.
Launch of the fictional organization "Kriegsentwicklungshilfe" (KEH / War development aid) with national campaign (website, brochures, propaganda videos, press
announcements and reports in newspapers), public appearances with the fictional characters Dr. Alois
Stocher (Andreas Heusser) and George Klein (Christoph Nüssli), and implementation of the happening "Nationaler Waffensammeltag" (national collection day for weapons) at
Helvetia Square, Zurich.
Propaganda videos:
Archive Material, Media Response: Newspaper articles and reports about
KEH
A Drip Painting Symphony for buckets, typewriters and piano.
Performance on 28.09.2012, Duration: 60 min., The Institute,
directed by Andreas Heusser.
Piano: Nik Bärtsch
Buckets / Percussion: Alex Huber, Ali Salvioni, Ernst Scholl, Martin Meyer, Lukas Mantel
Typewriters: Gaël Roth, Miriam Erni
Performance at Cabaret Voltaire on 2.11.2011, Duration: 90 min.
A slick Economist lectures on the principles and mechanisms of "Art investment banking" (AIB), including the concept of value creation through
destruction. Then, with the participation of the audience, he sells shares of future artworks by San Keller: the income from the
sales is the base for the artworks yet to be produced by the artist. San Keller signs the banknotes,
shredders them, puts the shreds into empty jars. The labeled and numbered jars are now auctioned as original art works of San Keller. All works are sold
for prices which are double until four times higher than the original value of money.
Archive Material
Recurring Performances, Zürich, 27.8.10 und 21.5.11.
Voluntary by-passers obey to seemingly harmless instructions while they reenact unknowingly the famous torture scenes of the Abu Ghraib scandal. The Swiss photographer Désirée Good takes pictures of the "living pictures" performed by the by-passers, afterwards the images are sold as postcards at a nearby souvenir corner.