Andro Wekua
«That Would Have
Been Wonderful»
11th September – 4th November 2004
Andro Wekua «That Would Have Been Wonderful», exhibition view, 2004. Photo: Kunst Halle Sankt Gallen, Stefan Rohner
Andro Wekua, Black Sea Surfer, 2004; Andro Wekua, No title (vases), 2004. Photo: Kunst Halle Sankt Gallen, Stefan Rohner
Andro Wekua, Just kidding, 2004. Photo: Kunst Halle Sankt Gallen, Stefan Rohner
Andro Wekua, Wie heisst du, mein Kind? (engl. What's your name, kid?), 2004. Photo: Kunst Halle Sankt Gallen, Stefan Rohner
Andro Wekua «That Would Have Been Wonderful», exhibition view, 2004. Photo: Kunst Halle Sankt Gallen, Stefan Rohner
Andro Wekua «That Would Have Been Wonderful», exhibition view, 2004. Photo: Kunst Halle Sankt Gallen, Stefan Rohner
Andro Wekua (*1977) is a master of suggestion, of small gestures. His narrative structures are deadly focused on their targets, yet remain astonishingly open. The title of the exhibition «That Would Have Been Wonderful» refers to a leitmotif of Wekua's work: the instrumentalization of fiction. We read the phrase «this would have been wonderful.» Although we do not know what the artist is talking about, his title envelopes the exhibition in an aura of excitement.
The artist was born in the country of Georgia and has been living in Germany and Switzerland for a long time. Thus, Wekua is familiar with the realities of Western Europe as well as those of the former Soviet Union and of Georgia today. The Georgia of Soviet-times and his childhood is inaccessible, reborn as a kind of artistic myth. Cleverly, Wekua locates his drawn, collaged or sculptural images in a No-Man's Land between East and West, aesthetic exactness and improvisation, confidence and melancholy. He creates his own highly visual scripts which play with his past and stylize it into fiction.
This exhibition is generously supported by McKinnivan Moos Inc. Cham, Peter Kilchmann Gallery Zurich, Cassinelli-Vogel-Foundation Zurich, Erna and Curt Burgauer Foundation Zurich. Special thanks to Pius Sidler, Peter Kilchmann, Patrick Frey, Allessandro Pascarella, Victor Escobar and Marc Zumstein.