meters behind sea level, 2005/2011

Pro Helvetia - Swiss Arts Council and Ahmedabad International Arts Festival (AIAF) 2011 present meters behind sea level, 2005/2011 a video installation by Swiss artist Sonja Feldmeier. [dated October 2011]

Pro Helvetia - Swiss Arts Council and Ahmedabad International Arts Festival (AIAF) 2011 present 
meters behind sea level, 2005/2011 
a video installation by Swiss artist Sonja Feldmeier 
at Arts Reverie, 1824 Khijda Sheri, Dhal ni Pol, Ahmedabad 
on Friday 14 to Sunday 16 October 2011 
On view from Friday 14 to Sunday 16 October 2011 
Open to all 
The installation Swiss artist Sonia Feldmeier collects visual information from her surroundings and transfers its content to other visual systems. The artist effects her transformations in multimedia installations that include painting, video and photography. In the body of work titled ‘meters behind sea level’, Sonja produces fictional maps by working on the military camouflage patterns of different countries. The artist pares down the flora and geology, giving the work the appearance of a map with contour lines and shades of colour. Sonja Feldmeier first interprets the camouflage pattern from a topographical perspective and creates models out of clay. Photographs documenting each step produce the contour lines which are eventually enlarged and reproduced in the art work. The two-dimensional micro-perspective evolves into a bird’s eye view of a 3D topography. The installation, using existing military camouflage patterns that are worked over in several stages to produce maps of fictional territories, appropriately demonstrates the festival theme Pattern in Art. 

Sonja Feldmeier 
A visual artist from Switzerland, Sonja Feldmeier divides her time between New York, London, Delhi and Basel. The tiny studio in New York (2001/ 2004) inspired her to go beyond the confines of her work-space and use the urban fabric as a giant studio. Expanding the scope of her work and appropriating city structures resulted in new working methods. Her work is not bound to a specific medium. Images she captures on her camera are used as the basic foundation for her videos. Sonja peels the existing context away from the images and embeds them in new structures, thus changing their meaning. In pieces such as ‘meters behind sea level’, 2005/2011, the purported truth of the image content loses its validity and the elements of significance within the image can be re-associated. During her visit to Ahmedabad, Sonja will be conducting workshops for students of the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad. 

Organiser and Partner: Ahmedabad International Arts Festival (AIAF) 2011