This major one-man exhibition of Roman Signer at the Aargauer Kunsthaus was prompted by the acquisition of the artist’s photo series titled Street Views. In addition to this work, 36 projections of Signer’s super 8 films (1975 – 1989) will be shown.

The projected films are presented like a series of pictures mounted one next to another. For this purpose, the Aargauer Kunsthaus has removed nearly all movable walls on the ground floor. The expansive orchestration of the projections in a single gallery with 600 m² floor space allows for a comparative viewing of Signer’s early super 8 films. Signer’s “events” are characterised by an ephemeral quality that virtually calls for filmic documentation. Early on, the artist used the technology of super 8 films to achieve this. Recorded without sound, the films convey only the visual part of the events, thus pointing to their potential as fleeting sculptures.

The films are contrasted with the 2004 work Street Views, which consists of two series. Each shows everyday scenes at roadsides in Eastern Europe: makeshift stalls selling fruit and vegetables in one case and memorials commemorating road casualties in the other. In both, the needs of individuals either to market the produce from their own garden or to express the pain suffered through the loss of a loved one take on a physical shape. In his photographs Signer manages to highlight the installation-like qualities of the everyday arrangements.