annex14 would like to invite you to the group exhibition “Shadows of Others” in which the following artists will be represented with works at the gallery: Petra Koehle/Nicolas Vermot-Petit-Outhenin (1977, CH), Michel Sauer (1949, DE), Anu Vahtra (1982, EST) and Christian Vetter (1970, CH)

This exhibition addresses us not as bodies or individuals that cast shadows, but as those who perceive and reflect on that phenomenon. It is all about shadows cast and grey areas which take on a different real and metaphorical significance depending on their context, and which therefore point beyond natural science and formal approaches: for example, to socio-cultural, psychological, ideological, political or phenomenological perceptions and interpretations.

In everyday life we all use metaphors such as, ”to live in the shadow of others” or “on the shadowy side of society”. There is also something of this in Christian Vetter’s photographic work Drawer. The series consists of different views of an old wooden drawer on which names like Mehmet, Cemel or Giuseppe and place names like Regensdorf and Lenzburg are scribbled by hand. Here the most varied of cultures and histories meet in a confined space. By being documented and presented to the public, they direct our focus to an often repressed – and not just individual – reality.

The photograms in the group of works by Petra Koehle/Nicolas Vermot-Petit-Outhenin entitled “Labor” play with equally multifaceted meanings: the photograms directly reproduce the shadows of the objects, while at the same time the tools found in their studio recall the industrial past of this place.

At first glance, the series of black-and-white photographs by Anu Vahtra entitled “Shadows of Others” reveal a handling of the theme that is more akin to phenomenology and perceptual psychology. The deceptive game of light and shade, positive and negative, disrupts the optical-physical laws, while the intriguing insights and spatial constellations scarcely allow us to take up a fixed perceptual position.

Michel Sauer’s “Ane Mone”, hanging from the ceiling, and the Blue Skies by Petra Koehle/Nicolas Vermot-Petit-Outhenin could be viewed from a phenomenological perspective. So why not try an experiment of one’s own, mentally or rather actually? At thr next opportunity, why not lie down on your back in a meadow in summer and indolently observe the passing clouds and the cooling shadows they cast.