Kaleidoscopic Eye—Artistic intervention in the Sitterwerk and in the Kunsthalle St.Gallen
Within the framework of her exhibition Kaleidoscopic Eye in the Kunsthalle, the Mexican Mariana Castillo Deball (*1975) connects important locations and the history of St.Gallen with one another: the encyclopedic Material Archive of the Sitterwerk, the textile history of the city and the Kunsthalle.
In her artistic work, Deball charts the spaces of action and remembering and object-worlds of individuals, which always show a quite distinct historical and cultural context. For her research, the artist visits institutions involved in collecting, classifying, cataloguing and presenting cultural goods, such as, for example, libraries, museums, archives, and represent a symbolic order for the world. Thus, after the phase of collecting and selecting information, she creates installations, objects, photographs, and audio and video works that are often related to a particular space and present a fictional frame story. The artist is particularly interested in the collaborating with other producers of culture.
It is, therefore, only consistent that Deball is also doing research in the Sitterwerk for her exhibition in the Kunsthalle. In the end, she realized not only a video work but also an intervention, which can be seen both in the Sitterwerk and in the Kunsthalle.
She spent the time from February until April 2009 in the Sitterwerk.