Films

25 May – 14 September 2025 / Kunsthalle

The exhibition Films centres on Roman Signer's (*1938) work with the moving image, with a focus on works created in and around Appenzell since the mid-1970s.

From the very beginning, the work of Roman Signer (*1938, CH) has been concerned with ephemeral events and the release of provoked and existing energies. His materials are natural forces such as water, wind, fire or gravity, which he relates to everyday objects such as chairs, buckets, red kayaks, blue barrels, remote-controlled flying objects, umbrellas or fans and which repeatedly appear as leitmotifs in the artist's work. He forms grotesquely comical situations into images and unfolds a subtle poetry of humour. Signer documents the precisely planned actions, which are composed of the potential of the situation, the transformation of energy and the trace of the process, in photographic series, on film or later on video. The Super 8 films that Roman Signer shot from the mid-1970s onwards play a special role. They go far beyond a filmic documentation of his actions and become an independent medium in his oeuvre. At the centre of the exhibition are the films made in Signer's hometown of Appenzell and the surrounding area. This is Roman Signer's first solo exhibition in Appenzell, CH, which extends over three floors of the Kunsthalle and parts of the former brickworks.

Publication

On the occasion of the exhibition, the publication Roman Signer. Werkverzeichnis Super-8-Filme / Catalogue Raisonné Super 8 films was released by the publishing house Walther & Franz König, Cologne and Kunstmuseum / Kunsthalle Appenezll.

The catalogue raisonné brings together 258 Super 8 films and 18 ‘“leftover films”. The publication is supplemented by artist texts by Roman Signer, essays by Stefanie Gschwend (director of the Kunstmuseum / Kunsthalle Appenzell) and Stephan Kunz (director of the Bündner Kunstmuseum), and an editorial by Peter Zimmermann. Purchasing the publication allows you to view the films collected in it.

ROMAN SIGNER: WERKVERZEICHNIS SUPER-8 FILME / CATALOGUE RAISONNÉ SUPER 8 FILMS
Kommentiert von / explained by Roman Signer, in Zusammenarbeit / in collaboration with Peter Zimmermann. Hrsg. von / Ed. by Stefanie Gschwend, Aleksandra Signer, Peter Zimmermann. Kunstmuseum / Kunsthalle Appenzell, Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther & Franz König, Köln / Cologne 2025. 24 x 19 cm. 360 S. mit 200 farb. Abb., gebunden, Text in dt. & engl. 360 pages with 200 colour illustrations, hardcover. ISBN 978-3-96098-378-1

Regular price CHF 85
Signed edition (1-100) CHF 150

On site in the museum shops of the Kunstmuseum and Kunsthalle Appenzell, by email to info_at_kunsthalleappenzell.ch (plus postage)
or at Bücherladen Appenzell

The exhibition and / or the Catalogue raisonné are generously supported by

Patron Association