Over 150 entries are submitted  every autumn, and judged by the ex­pert juries of the Aargauer Kunst­haus and the Aargauer Kuratorium. To coincide with the exhibition, the Aargauer Kuratorium will award grants in the field of visual art and performance. In the same context, Credit Suisse presents its advance­ment award to a young artist.

Artists

Esther Amrein, Rosângela de Andrade Boss, Claudia Breitschmid, Marilin Brun, Kai Bührer & Jan Hofer, Tanja Bykova, Copa & Sordes, Manuela Cossalter, Félicia Eisenring, Tatjana Erpen, Gabriel Flückiger, Lilian Frei, Franziska Furter, Thomas Galler, Viviana González Méndez, Clare Goodwin, Otto Grimm, Stefan Gritsch, Thomas Hauri, Valentin Hauri, Emanuel Heim, Arnold Helbling, Victoria Holdt, Stefanie Knobel, Oliver Krähenbühl, Rafael Lippuner, Lea Lüscher, Max Matter, Laura Mietrup, Irene Naef, Sadhyo Niederberger, Petra Njezic, Guido Nussbaum, Hannah Parr, Michael Roggli, Ueli Sager, Lorenz Olivier Schmid, Mette Stausland, Jonas Studer, Paul Takács, Timo Ullmann & Marco Baltisberger, Nick Walter, Linus Weber, Olivia Wiederkehr & Theater Hora, Rolf Winnewisser, Beat Zoderer

Guest: Ishita Chakraborty

Ishita Chakraborty’s (*1989 from Kolkata, India) practice includes drawings, installations, poetry, video and sound. The context of her work consists of the traces of displacement, the trauma of colonialism and its articulation in language and identity. In her work, she explores the strategies and discourse of resistance. She lets people tell their stories and tries to create from them a narrative of micro-histories that conventional historiography is not able to tell.

Exotische Pflanzen im Garten – Was tun? is the continuation of a long-term project about listening as a transformative process. In doing so, the artist attempts to create a dialogue and makes us think about our understanding of migration, human rights and ecology. She explores the relics of colonialism and the interwoven histories of xenophobia, racism and migration – as well as the invasive species of flora.

Personal and ancestral narratives, songs and poems play a central role in this work. Words describe the alienation from home and family, displacement and the relationship to life in a new and alien environment, told in the protagonists’ own voice in their mother tongue. The stories tell of the plight of individuals due to war, political oppression and, increasingly, climate change.  In search of new ways to live, we meet: in the utopian space created by the artist, there should be room for everyone.