Martin Disler - The Shedding of skin and dance

16th March until 16th June 2019

In an intense creative period at the beginning of the 90’s the Swiss painter and sculptor Martin Disler (1949-1996) worked on a series of life-size bronze sculptures. These 66 figures occupy a prominent position in Martin Disler’s artistic work and were exhibited between 1991 and1992 under the title of The Shedding of skin and dance at the Whitechapel Art Gallery in London, the Kunsthalle Basel as well as the in the art forum of the Municipal Gallery in the Lenbachhaus Munich . 
The exhibition in Skulpturenpark Waldfrieden will be the first time in 30 years that a selection of 21 of the most powerful of these works is being shown. This has only been possible thanks to loans from several museums and private collectors. 
The expressive and equally fascinating and yet unsettling figures allow us a glimpse into the restless creative energies which were involved in Disler’s work. The sculptures arose from an inner irrefutable necessity characterized by the use of physical force and the immediacy of gesture.
Martin Disler, born in Seewen (Switzerland) in 1949, was a self-taught painter, sculptor and writer. He lived the life of a restless traveller moving between New York, Zurich, Amsterdam, Lugano, Samedan, Milan and finally in Les Planchettes in the Swiss Jura. He died of a stroke at the early age of 47. 
Disler firstly attracted international attention with his exhibition Invasion durch eine falsche Sprache (Invasion by a false language) in the Kunsthalle Basel in 1980. In the following years he rapidly gained growing recognition with solo exhibitions in the aforementioned institutions as well as in the ARC Paris, the Arte Moderna Sao Paulo and by taking part at the Biennale Venice 1980 and the documenta 7 Kassel 1982.

Concomitant with the exhibition a catalogue in German and English will be published with texts by Roland Wäspe (Director of the Art Museum, St Gallen), Demosthenes Davvetas (philosopher and author) and a historical text by Martin Disler himself.

The exhibition has been organized in cooperation with Martin Disler’s estate.
The exhibition will be supported by the Swiss cultural foundation Pro Helvetia.