From 4 until 27 May 2018, the renowned art space La Rade in Locarno hosted the first institutional solo exhibition by the Zurich based artist duo Baltensperger + Siepert, curated by Riccardo Lisi and Silvia Converso.
A collection of the most important works by Baltensperger + Siepert’s from their Territories cycle was presented in Locarno for the first time. In this work cycle, which the duo started in 2010, they examine fragments of the topic of territorial power relations.
Ways to Escape One’s Former Country. A Handbook for Uncertain Migration is based on interviews that Baltensperger + Siepert held with asylum-seekers in Switzerland over a period of three years. In these interviews, they focussed on people’s actions before setting out and during their journeys.
Silvia Converso contributed to the production of both the book and the art work Pattern & Traces which accompanies it.
In the carpet work Pattern and Traces by Baltensperger + Siepert which accompanies their book project Ways to Escape One’s Former Country the informal migratory routes towards Europe are made visible as traces. The travel routes, which are also described as procedural instructions in the eponymous book, have been knotted into an antique oriental carpet through 600 hours of manual work upon Baltensperger + Siepert’s instructions.
The travel routes overlay the formal patterns of the oriental carpet, which was once brought to Europe as a colonial commodity.