DANIELE BUETTI - Waving the Sky
22 Jan to 12 Mar 2005

Galerie Sfeir-Semler, Hamburg

Swiss artist born 1965 in Fribourg, Switzerland.

Are we creating our own world or is it the media that create us? This relationship of authentic feelings and mediated realities runs as a leitmotif through Daniele Buetti's oeuvre.

For the first time Daniele Buetti works with artificial light. It illuminates perforated coloured kitchen- or plastic-foil from the back. Iconographically as well as iconologically words and sentences become more important in Buetti's work. The text stands on its own or is combined with pictures of beautiful women.



It is not primarily the content of the text that directs our attention but the very sensual aura of the pictures. Their vibrations seduce and capture the eye of the beholder. The second time one looks at it one is astonished to discover a fake:

The glamour is clutter made of cheap materials such as lametta, kitchen- or plastic foil.


Images from top left - 'be my perfect guide', top right - 'waiting for desaster', left - 'be my perfect guide', installation views from Galerie Sfeir-Semler 2005. Bottom left - Interior, Lightbox, 70x50 cm. Bottom right - White Tears, 2002, Lightbox, 70x50 x 10 cm

By exhibiting a fake luxury Buetti does not attempt to unmask a world of illusions but to play with the possibilities of seduction and with the manipulation of our feelings. We are seduced by the glimmer and glitter of his pictures and become aware of our longing for a perfect world - which at the same time is identified as a pipe-dream. This discovery could be leading into despair if it wasn't for Buetti: In combining pictures of beautiful women with simple questions like "Will I ask for help" he shows even a superstar to be vulnerable. By putting her into the context of daily life and compassion she and with her the glamourous dream-world gains back credibility and individuality. And we realize that we are constantly oscillating between self-determination and seduction, between creating our own world and being created by others.