The body within abstraction

In constructivist-concrete art, the human body was largely ignored – be it as a subject, or as an element in the production of art. The focus was on the autonomy of the line, colour and surface as artistic means, whereas figurative representations were considered illusionistic and arbitrary. The group exhibition The body within abstraction at Museum Haus Konstruktiv playfully and critically questions this conventional reading. Eight internationally renowned artists demonstrate how the body can serve as both a unit of measure and thematic basis for minimalistically pared-down, non-figurative art. Heidi Bucher, Eva Fàbregas, Kimsooja, Dóra Maurer, Bruce Nauman, Steven Parrino, Chiharu Shiota and Franz West: The exhibition brings together some big names, and is also a premiere, as this is the first time since moving to Löwenbräukunst-Areal that Museum Haus Konstruktiv is utilising all of its new exhibition spaces, in both the east and west wings, for a single presentation. In exhibiting these prominent artists, the museum is also celebrating its 40th anniversary. The starting point is Dóra Maurer’s film piece Proportions (1979) from the museum’s collection, a work in which the artist systematically measures the proportions of her own body. The manner in which Bruce Nauman makes the underlying concept tangible is particularly direct: His piece Body pressure (1974) asks visitors to press their own bodies against a wall, and to consciously perceive the points of contact between body and wall. Sculpture thus becomes something experienced first-hand, and exists solely within that experience. In Nauman’s video performance Dance or exercise on the perimeter of a square (1967/68), a simple geometric shape becomes central to a physical endurance test. Heidi Bucher’s Bodyshells (1972, replicas 2024) are four shaped objects made of foam, coated with mother-of-pearl paint and designed as wearable body coverings. In 1972, they were part of a filmed performance on Venice Beach, in which the voluminous forms, reminiscent of sea creatures and sci-fi aliens, tentatively and ponderously made their way from the Pacific Ocean towards the beach. The Bodyshells performance will be staged in Switzerland for the first time at the opening of the Museum Haus Konstruktiv exhibition, and these objects will be set in motion again on the 18th of December 2026, as part of the museum’s 40th-anniversary celebrations. Steven Parrino, who in the 1980s and 1990s was not only a visual artist but also a musician on the New York scene, transferred rhythm and physical energy directly to the canvas: He stretched it, crumpled it, and exerted pressure on it. In Push up – pull down – push up – pull down (1987), a monochrome black canvas becomes the site of a bodily act, always verging on destruction. Other artworks in the exhibition, ranging from Franz West’s wearable Passstücke (Adaptives) and Chiharu Shiota’s room-filling thread installation Endless connections, through to Kimsooja’s textile Bottari and Eva Fàbregas’s latex Exudates, exemplify how corporeality can be conveyed in abstract art, without any depiction or illusion.