Matthew Marks is pleased to announce an exhibition of recent videos by Peter Fischli and David Weiss at 529 West 21st Street.

The exhibition will mark the debut of the video Hunde (Dogs), which shows three dogs whimpering and barking behind a fence, trying to reach something on the other side, our side, but unable to pass through the closed gate. Also included is Büsi (Kitty), installed opposite the whimpering dogs, in which a seated cat silently drinks from a bowl of milk.

Peter Fischli and David Weiss often seek to depict the most common events of everyday life, singling out the ordinary for observation and contemplation, and these two videos are prime examples of such an aesthetic. Focusing on a seemingly meaningless activity for a lengthy duration (the cat drinks for six and a half minutes, the dogs whimper for about 30) forces one to find meaning in unexpected places. These two common sights, frustrated dogs and a thirsty cat, are rendered uncommon and saturated with importance by virtue of being isolated and examined with such unusual (and seemingly inappropriate) intensity.

Peter Fischli and David Weiss live and work in Zurich and began collaborating in 1979. This summer the artists won the Golden Lion, the highest prize awarded to an artist at the Venice Biennale. An exhibition entitled “False Retrospective” will open at the Museum Boijmans van Beuningen in Rotterdam in December of this year. Büsi (Kitty) was projected on the Times Square Panasonic Astrovision as part of a series organized by Creative Time in 2001.

The artists represented Switzerland in the Venice Biennale in 1995, and in 1996 a retrospective of their work was organized by the Walker Art Center and subsequently traveled to museums in San Francisco, Boston, Philadelphia, and Columbus. They have had major exhibitions at the Museo d’Art Contemporani, Barcelona; the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris; and the Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Basel.

Peter Fischli David Weiss will be on view at the Matthew Marks Gallery, 529 West 21st Street (between 10th and 11th Avenues) through December 6th, 2003. Hours: Thursday through Saturday, 11:00 AM to 6:00 PM.

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