Electronic artist

Development

Beat Kuert’s images are born from the performances by dust&scratches;

they lose their physical aspects and the realism of the performance from

which they originate – some sort of body-art - and acquire a valence that

reveals the same artificiality as painting and sculpture. They undergo

the very same alchemical transformation.

His symbolical figures represent a living existence which the artist

perceives as form/work of art. It is therefore obvious that Beat Kuert

uses a sort of artifice in his work,  replacing  the “performance”, or the

direct display of the event, with the video record of the observed event.

Through this artifice, it gains a diverse legibility, and a different and

transfigured significance.

Technique

His photographs are stills from his videos, in which the most

representative image is stopped and isolated, perhaps to allow a

deeper and more elaborated reading.  Kuert employes the metamorphic

abilities of the video image utilizing the possibility of intervening on

the electronic “texture” of the figures using the infinite fragmentation

of pixels and the possibilities of the electronic colour in a strongly

symbolical and metaphoric manner, proclaiming its intrinsic evocative

qualities.

Style

Beat Kuert is the video artist closest to the manner of painting. Voiding

the “linguistic minimalism” typical of the video art of the 60s  and moving

towards a sort of “pictorial baroque-like” expression made of strong

ignition of colours, accentuated by the interventions on the images made

with a computer. The “fight for the image” fought in the past through the

means of painting, happens here between the natural coldness of the

electronic means and the warm gesture of the spreading of colour, also

electronic. With a procedure that all figurate art has in common, Kuert

affirms in that way a more meaningful “intelligence of the reality”.

(Enzo di Martino)

Biography

Born in Zurich, Beat Kuert lives and works in Arzo.

In 1966 he makes his first experimental films and starts to work as a

director for Turnus Film Zurich in 1968. In 1971, after a stay in Latin

America, he makes his first documentary. The next year he begins

cooperating with the Swiss Television on cultural programs.

In 1996 he starts making television documentaries on famous

architects, including Jean Nouvel, Mario Botta, Herzog & de Meuron.

Acknowledged as one of the most audacious explorers of

his generation in Switzerland, in 2005 he creates the group

“dust&scratches” which is concerned with video art, performances

and music. His experimental works include: “Die Zeit ist böse” (1981),

“Pi-errotische Beziehungen” (1982), “Il grande inquisitore” (1991) and

“Am Ende der Zeit” (1998); are considered to be his most important

works of fiction: “Schilten” (1979), “Martha Dubronski” (1984/85),

“Deshima” (1986) and “L’assassina” (1990) starring Margaret

Mazzantini, Massimo Popolizio and Elena Sofia Ricci.

Videos (selection)

2007 Strand / a la playa 3’38”

2006/7 Uno Specchio 4’

2005 Piuma 2’30”

2006 Incolore 4’17”

2006 Corri 4’47”

2006 Fiume 3’40”

2006 Aurora Black 3’16”

2006/7 Secrets of a Watermelon 9’47”

2006/7 Rosso Mortale 4’

2006/7 Steps that stay 2’58”

2006 Battaglia 2’03”

2005/7 Annabel Lee 3’30”

2005/7 Angst vor dem Licht 2’36”

2006 Diana’s Hut 3’58”

2006 La donna del mare 5’25”

2008 Verticale 34’14”

2008 Field Below 3’48’’

2008 Grave New World 7’20’’

2008 Torre

2008 Rinanera

2008 Nebbia

2009 Hell above heaven

2009 Behind my soul

2009 Eyes under ice

Filmography

Feature Films

1974 Mulungu

1979 Schilten

1980 Nestbruch

1984 Martha Dubronski

1986 Deshima

1990 L’assassina

Experimental Films

1981 Die Zeit ist böse

1982 Pi-errotische Beziehungen

1991 Il Grande Inquisitore

1998 Am Ende der Zeit

Architecture

1997 Max Dudler – der Reichtum der Askese  (45’)

1998 Jean Nouvel – Aesthetics of Wonder  (55’)

2000 Herzog & de Meuron – Tate Modern  (25’)

2001 Architectour de Suisse – Portraits of Swiss Architects

         Mario Botta, Mario Campi, Ivano Gianola,

         Herzog & de Meuron, Moro & Moro, Luigi Snozzi (15’)

2005 Mario Botta - La Nuova Scala  (26’)

2006 Alchemy of building - the architects Herzog & de Meuron (52’)

Documentaries

2002 Der Tulpenbaum (80’)

2003 Una piccolissima vittoria (57’)

2003 IchliebemIch (60’)

Television Films

1988 Lucas lässt grüssen

1990 Eine Frau für Alfie, (85’)

2004-2011 Berg und Geist (portraits 30’)

Awards

1979 Festival di Hyeres : Critics Award and Special Award of the Jury

1979 Award of the International Association Cinema d´Arts et d´Essai

1979 Award of the Ecumenical Jury (Festival di Locarno)

1979 Award Zürcher Filmpreis

1985 Award of the Jury “Chretiens Media” (Festival de droit de l´homme Strasbourg)

1985 Mostra internazionale del film d’autore di San Remo, Film Martha Dubronski (Best Actress)    

1985 Festival di Bludenz  Award of the Jury for Best Director and Best Screenplay

2005 Walo Award for “Berg und Geist”

2009 Bizzarro di Bronzo” Festival Bizzarro for the  Video “Grave New World”