Quicksand III

"Art is an escape in a way, which may be necessary, because it creates a distance and a chance to reflect on who you are and what is around you and which should give you the power to intervene.” John M Armleder in Schirn interview

John M. Armleder made the installation Quicksand III for the 2020-2021 exhibition It never ends, which ran in Kanal before the start of the renovation of the old Citroën-garage. For seven months, Armleder was given carte blanche in the showroom, where he curated a diverse programme of exhibitions, events and encounters across four floors.

Quicksand III is made up of yellow and blue shelving units from the former Citroën garage. The shelves are filled with a motley selection of out-of-place objects: materials the artist often works with, objects from his archive and things he found in the empty building. The composition of the storage units and the object display evoke an atmosphere of abandonment and invites reflection on the transience and mutability of things. In this way, the installation resonates with the past life of the exhibition space, but also with that of the artist.
Armleder created earlier versions of this work, including one for the MAMCO Geneva in 2019.