Station21, 5th - 26th February 2010, Zurich

The title of the exhibition “Ausverkauf” (Sale) is based on one particular work in the exhibition - a clothes stand - in which the clothes hangers are fixed on to the stand to underline their togetherness.

The works in Room 1 cover the themes of the body (as inner space), clothes (as outer space), and form, distortion and geometric constructions, which are transformed using different medias.– Clothes from the flea market are simply cut (dismantled) and transformed into graphical objects that are then photographed. Detached from the body and its function, the series of photographs “I Tamed My Chaos” show simple forms created with the use of garments - the artist introducing the question of chaos versus abstraction.

“10 Different Ways Of How to Read The Newspaper” is a work in which ten newspapers from the same issue date are cut into different geometric forms, photographed, and are themselves printed on to news paper. These printed papers are presented as a stacked pile, from which, visitors are invited to take a copy. With this work Veronika Spierenburg questions the everyday rectangular forms of books, newspapers, and magazines.

Another work “How To Simulate Foot Prints” shows two large stainless steel cookie cutters, which the artist has shaped into footprints. “quoting grandfather`s coat” is a large sized photograph showing a dark coat, inside of which are attached old photographs. Is it true, that this coat belonged to the artist`s grandfather? Another photograph “bowl/ bowler” is of a hat, which contains 10 rappen coins, a reference to buskers who use hats to collect money.

In the second room Veronika Spierenburg presents two simple videos which deals strongly with the theme of inside/outside.

Performance, message salon downtwon/ Perla-Mode, Zurich, 28 min., 2009

11 performers activate Polaroid cameras to a minimalistic sound composition, from the Swiss composer Marie-Cécile Reber. The sound has been recorded, and will be sold as a vinyl record via ebay from where Spierenburg bought her collection of SX-70 Polaroid cameras, used in the performance.

Performance, message salon downtwon/ Perla-Mode, Zurich, 10 min., 2009

SX-70 Polaroid Cameras are used during a performance with the Swiss contemporary dancer Carmen Pfammatter. The act of taking photographs is emphasized in relation to self-portraiture. The movements are choreographed minimally, with Pfammatter lying on the floor, facing the wall, sitting, and standing on the chair.

site-specific action, Olympic Stadion Tower Helsinki, 2009

On top of the Olympic Stadium Tower in Helsinki, visitors are asked to scream one word that conveys being there - what they can see, how they are feeling.

site-specific action, KIASMA Helsinki, 3 hours, 24th Oktober & 2nd November 2009

The K-stickers are the entrance tickets for the Museum of Contemporary Art, KIASMA, in Helsinki. Visitors leaving the museum can place these stickers on a metal stand outside the museum entrance. From several hours, during the Night Of The Arts, held in Helsinki, Spierenburg stood outside Kiasma, inviting people to place their stickers on her body. There touch was fast, reserved, inadvertent, and they approached her she was a fragile porcelain vase.

site-specific action, National library Helsinki,  Blu-ray Video, 16 min., 2009, 5 Editions +2 AP

The idea of the work `From Right To Left` derives from the film `Colour Of Pomegranates` (Sergei Parajanov) in which there is a scene of numerous books spread on a rooftop with the pages being turned by the wind. Spierenburg created a site-specific work, in the National Library in Helsinki, and invited 28 people to turn pages of old encyclopedias to form a sound performance.

installation, Postcards, Railway station Helsinki, 2009

A postcard stand holding postcards with quotations from the book `Flüchtlings-gespräche` - Conversation in Exile - by Bertolt Brecht is placed in the pub of the railway station in Helsinki. The book `Flüchtlingsgespräche` is about two people who meet frequently in the railway station at Helsinki, in 1942. Veronika Spierenburg chose 13 sentences from the conversations in the book, concerned with writing, traveling, freedom, changes, order and disorder, and opportunities. The postcards are free to take.

Video, Helsinki, 2009

The video `Jukka, Jorma, Jasmin` is shot in three Saunas in Helsinki: Kotiharju Sauna, Naval Academy Sauna, and the Prisoner Sauna in Suomenlinna. A naked woman, a Naval Officer, and a Prisoner Guard sing a traditional Finnish love song with their backs to the camera.

site-specific audio walk, 3min, Cable Factory Helsinki, 2009

The audio walk is an ensemble of sentences about pedestrian road crossings, derived from friends in different countries. People were asked to listen to the audio monologue lasting 3 minutes, whilst crossing the long pedestrian crossing at the Cable Factory, in Helsinki.

Installation with C-Prints 80 x 100cm, 2009

100 letters are sent to people in Helsinki with the surname of Kangas (the Finnish word for cloth) requesting that they complete the missing piece of the cloth that is shown in a photograph enclosed with the letter.

Installation, cloths and cord, 2009

Inspired by people sitting on their coats in the park, Spierenburg created a picnic blanket with clothes bought from the Helsinki Hietsu flea market. The clothes are stitched together to create a large blan-ket. Each garment has an individual story, that Spierenburg received from the market sellers.

20 Inkjet Prints on Hahnemühlepaper presented in a box, 2009

Newspaper photographs are used to analyze the photograph in a playful formal manner, disregarding the content of the photograph.

Performance, Lab Gallery, New York City, 20th - 24th October 2008
Message Salon Downtwon/ Perla-Mode, Zurich, 29th October 2009

The performance Audience To Audience is a collaborative work with the British-Israeli artist Sophie Loss. The work has a strong theatrical element, since it engages with viewers, and passerby - an audience - on the street outside the gallery space. Another audience, seated in the windows of gallery, is directed by the two artists to synchronize their actions in response, to the audience outside.

Sound Performance, Shed-and-a-Half Gallery, London, 2008

Photographs of discarded cigarettes and torn posters inspire a vocal performance by the Swiss singer Sabina Leone. The video documents a performance at Shed-and-a-Half Gallery in London, 20 min, 2008.

4 C-Prints with papers, 30x40cm, 2007

The legs of London’s passersby are photographed, the photographs are subsequently displayed on the wall, each one cropped with sheets of paper.

43 C-Prints, 40x45 cm, 2006

Fellow students on Spierenburg’s Master of Arts course are photographed from above, offering an unusual perspective on the bodies of human beings.

Video, 1.44 min., 2005

A narrative is added to images through simple gestures of liquids, fire and a hair dryer: Through opti-cal illusion, the old Dungeon Ghyllí hotel begins to burn, the blossoms of a cherry tree rock in the wind, and fog appears by the bridge. The colored images are from a found picture book ‘The Lake District of Great Britain’ (published 1961)