Galerie Nikolaus Ruzicska presents the first solo exhibition in Austria of works by the internationally renowned Swiss artist STEPHANE DAFFLON (b. Neyruz, CH, 1972). Meticulously constructed geometric shapes that combine simplicity with chromatic vibrancy are characteristic of DAFFLON’s works. Murals, spacial interventions, object-like paintings or movable panels let him draw attention to a given exhibition site and facilitate an unmediated experience of it.
The lavishly colorful paintings he has created for the exhibition in Salzburg are reminiscent of the classic video game “Tetris,” which was developed in the 1980s on the basis of an earlier logic puzzle called “Pentomino.” The objective is to place diverse geometric shapes composed of four squares so as to form complete horizontal lines. DAFFLON borrows the idea for the formal idiom of his works, prompting the beholder to reconsider his own position in the space in which his experience is set. One feels an irrepressible urge to enter into playful interaction with the works, to rotate and shift them around to produce new arrangements, resulting in a paradoxical perception of static structure and movement, space and object. The rectangles composed in a variety of ways derive from the ground plan and vertical section of our gallery building, to which DAFFLON has painstakingly tailored his works. “When I design a project for an exhibition, I take the features of the rooms into consideration. The series then grows independently of those spaces, but always with a view to their provenance,” the artist says. He drafts the templates using digital tools, which offer him flexibility in varying the patterns, shapes, and colors. In a final step, he transfers the designs to the canvas by hand.