Antje Schiffers is interested in the everyday realities of various groups within society, and in the ways their lives are shaped by economic, political, and social conditions – at both local and global levels. She learns different languages and travels a great deal; being on the move is part of her artistic working method, as the exchange of experience is always based on close cooperation with the partners in any given project, organized mostly on a barter basis. In return for her artistic work, Schiffers receives texts, videos, everyday objects, or hospitality. This apparently matter-of-fact exchange also raises questions of the relative value of different activities and touches on issues of utility value versus artistic value, connected with the Romantic notion of the artistic genius. On the one hand, this working method necessitates direct partici­pation of those involved, while, on the other, a distanced analytical view is essential in order to clearly communicate the underlying ideas with regard to the various “operating systems” within society.

At the Secession, Antje Schiffers will present three projects whose content is interlinked in a range of ways both obvious and subtle.

For her latest project Großes Bauern-Theater (Big farmer’s theater, 2007-), realized with Thomas Sprenger, Antje Schiffers spent two months conducting field study with farmers in Lower Austria and Styria. Her interest here focuses on the reality lived by the farmers, which has undergone major changes as a result of globalization, EU membership and developments within society. While the farmers make video portraits of their everyday working routine, their farms, and their families, as well as commenting on agricultural policy and market develop­ments, Schiffers paints pictures showing views of the farms, which she hands over to the farmers in exchange for their video portraits. In the exhibition, the results of this modernday barter are formally translated into a stagelike presentation.

For one year, Antje Schiffers lived in a mountain village in Oaxaca, Mexico. As the “flower artist”, as she was called by the villagers, she created a register of the local flora in the style of expeditionary botanists of earlier times. The information contained in the register is based in part on the artist’s own observations, while also giving insights into knowledge handed down within the local population, some of which is linked with imaginative stories. During her stay, the artist also set up a photographic laboratory, hired out cameras, and organized workshops showing how photographs are elaborated. In Da wo ich war (Where I was, 1998), the documents and works from this oneyear period are given an added narrative dimension in the artistic presentation.

For the project Hauptsache man hat Arbeit (Having work is the main thing, 2003/04), Antje Schiffers applied to work as a factory artist at the Hanover-based company of ContiTech, a subsidiary of the tire manufacturer Continental AG, as if this job actually existed. In her invented profession, she executed murals based on the wishes of the factory workforce. They included drawings of ContiTech products, instruments used in the company’s laboratories, and associative motifs providing an opportunity for brief moments of relief from everyday routine or reflecting the international origins of the staff.

Großes Bauern-Theater is part of the longterm project Ich bin gerne Bauer und möchte es auch gerne bleiben, and was realized in collaboration with Kunstverein Langenhagen, myvillages.org, Kulturstiftung des Bundes and Land Niederösterreich; Ich bin gerne Bauer… will be continued a.o. in England, the Netherlands, Romania, Moldova, and Portugal.