October 11, 2019 – November 24, 2019

One can instinctively understand that Michael Seidner hasn't been influenced all that much by other artists. The only art we need to mention in terms of influences on his work, is cave art.

It is not a coincidence that Georges Bataille, who saw art as a transgression of work and death, a manifestation of the erotic energy of life and the rebellion against work in the form of pure play, wrote extensively about prehistoric painting and visited the same caves in France a number of times. In his essay on Lascaux, Bataille is practically ‘losing it’ as he tries to make sense of the overwhelming impact of the cave art he saw there, giving it a central part in his philosophical understanding of artmaking as the most essential human activity.

It is precisely this energy, this understanding of art as a binding principle, as pure communication, that Michael Seidner is after. He is convinced, and cave art convinced him even more of it, that you do not need interpretation. His entire life-experiment as an artist is about obeying the necessity to paint, to surf on the energy, to feel alive, and about letting other people feel it.

Michael Seidner

sothu
Neumarkt 20
8001 Zurich