Draft:Muda Mathis

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Muda Mathis during the show “Let's sing Arbeiterin*” by Les Reines Prochaines and friends*, 2019

Muda Mathis (*February 25, 1959 in Zurich, Switzerland and resident in Regensdorf, Switzerland) is a Swiss performance artist, Installation artist and video artist, musician and performance activist. She is known for collaborative writing and works with Sus Zwick and the women's music performance group Les Reines Prochaines (in English "the Next Queens"). In 2009, she and her work were awarded the Meret Oppenheim Prize.[1]

Personal Life

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Muda Mathis grew up with five siblings in Romanshorn. After school, she completed the preliminary course at the St. Gallen School of Design and then a sculpture internship with Charlotte Germann-Jahn.[1] From 1978 to 1980, she attended the F+F School of Art and Media Design Zurich with Peter Trachsel, Doris Stauffer and Serge Stauffer as lecturers in Zurich, where she gained her first performance artist experience. From 1980 to 1982, she attended the Sigurd Leeder School of Dance in Herisau.

From 1986 to 1988 she studied audiovisual communication (video art) at the Basel School of Design under René Pulfer and remained active with audiovisual productions, bands, performances and Installations art in Basel and internationally. Since 1990 she has had a production partnership and also been living with Sus Zwick (* 1950).

She is a co-founder of the women's pop band and performance group Les Reines Prochaines (1987) and the studio and production community VIA Basel (AudioVideoKunst, 1988), des Manifest grosser und angesehener Künstlerinnenmanifesto (in German, the Manifesto of great and respected women artists) and co-author of the artist group Tischgespräche (in English, Table talk).[1] Since the early 1980s she has cultivated changing, often long-term collaborations with various artists and collectives, continuously with Fränzi Madörin and with her life partner Sus Zwick.

From 1996-2017 she taught at the Basel College of Art and Design. In 2003 she received an IAAB (International Exchange and Studio Program) Montréal studio grant and in 2009 the Prix Meret Oppenheim (both together with Sus Zwick). In summer 2022, Muda Mathis, Chris Regn, Andrea Saemann and Lena Eriksson curated the exhibition Bang Bang – Translokale Performance Geschichten (in German, Bang Bang - Translocal Performance Stories) at the Museum Tinguely.[1][2][3] In 2022, she received the Basel Culture Prize with Les Reines Prochaines and Friends*.

Career

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In 1987, Muda Mathis, Teresa Alonso and Regina Florida Schmid founded the performance music group Les Reines Prochaines, which performs with a changing line-up - Fränzi Madörin and Pipilotti Rist, Gabi Streiff, Sus Zwick, Sibylle Hauert, Michèle Fuchs and Barbara Naegelin. They formed a band in Basel during the youth and women's movement of the 1980s with the intention of questioning traditional art and gender boundaries[1] and still play to international audiences today. Dada, Fluxus and punk subculture.

She is the initiator and co-editor of the Performance Chronik Basel[1] (1968-1986 together with Silvana Iannetta, Sabine Gebhard Fink, Andrea Saemann, Anna Schürch, Bernadett Settele, Margarit von Büren, and Sus Zwick) and the second book publication of the Performance Chronik Basel “Erinnern und Aufzeichnen” (in German, Remembering and Recording) (ed. by Sabine Gebhardt Fink, Muda Mathis, Margarit von Büren published by Diaphanes Verlag Zurich / Berlin 2016), a network about the historical reappraisal of performance art in the Basel area[2]. In summer 2022, Muda Mathis, Chris Regn, Andrea Saemann and Lena Eriksson curated the exhibition Ausstellung Bang Bang – Translokale Performance Geschichten (in German, Bang Bang - Translocal Performance Stories) at Museum Tinguely.[3][4][5]

Collaborations are a component and feature of the artist's work. Together with various artists, she develops performance and stage programs such as the Gottlieber Revue, the stage production Let's sing Arbeiterin* . [1][2][3] or the latest revue Alte Tiere hochgestapelt,[4][5][6] as Les Reines Prochaines and friends* with Lucas Acton, Sibylle Aeberli, Michèle Fuchs, Sibylle Hauert, Chris Hunter, David Kerman, Chris Regn, Marcel Schwald, Dorothea Schürch, Opera[7] at the Theater Basel[8].

“Muda Mathis' artistic work moves between the fields of visual art - especially video/video installation and performance - and music, whereby she knows how to merge these areas in an intimate, melodramatic and pleasurable way: words paint pictures, pictures create sounds, sounds carry these on rhythmically and actions lend the pictures and music a new common structure and dynamic. A further characteristic of her art, both in terms of content and style, is the staged, irony-soaked dilettantism as a deliberate strategy. The unorthodox camera work is of decisive importance in the creation of the images, which are also performative. This is by no means static, but attached to the body or an extended part of the body or the objects, thus conveying unusual and idiosyncratic views of the events 'from within the profane things'. The viewers are thus not observers, but rather involved in the drama of the events [...] Muda Mathis belongs to the first generation of feminist-motivated video artists who have been breaking new ground with this medium since the early 1980s. In Mathis' case, this is particularly a questioning of normative guidelines not only in relation to female role models and ideals of beauty, but also in relation to normality in general. Equally important is the collective way of working with changing artistic and technical partners, which significantly shapes the aesthetics of her videos."[1]

In 2021, the performances Embracing a Spanish Village from 2011 and Protuberanzen II from 2004 were purchased by Kunstkredit Basel Stadt. The performances by Muda Mathis & Sus Zwick are in the collection in the form of notations, scripts and audiovisual documentation, which are available as a guide for future re-performances.[1] In 2022, the first interpretation with Lea Rüegg, Raffia Li and Wilfred Speller was realized at Museum Tinguely[2] and in 2024 there was another performance of this work by Birgit Kempker and Bärbel Schwarz at Turbine Giswil[3].

Work in Collections

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  • Kunstkredit Basel-Stadt; Liestal, Sammlung Neue Medien Baselland
  • Bern, Stiftung Kunst Heute
  • Arbon-Frasnacht, Seewasserwerk, Klang- and Lightinstallation, Der Getränkeautomat lebt, 1999
  • Kunstmuseum des Kantons Thurgau, Kartause Ittingen
  • Kunsthaus Zürich; Zürich, Swiss Life Art Collection, Foyer Binz Center, Das ideale Leben, 2000

Awards, honors, and recognition

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Mathis has received numerous awards and honors, including:

  • 1988: Le Prix du Jeune Créateur, Semaine International de Video, Geneva (with Renatus Zürcher)
  • 1988: Feminale Prize, Cologne (with Pipilotti Rist)
  • 1989: Video Prize, Viper International Film and Video Festival, Lucerne (with Pipilotti Rist)
  • 1991: 1st Prize, Biennale de Video, Medellin, Colombia
  • 2000: Konstanzer Kunstpreis
  • 2003: IAAB Studio Grant, Montréal (with Sus Zwick)
  • 2009: Prix Meret Oppenheim (with Sus Zwick)[1]
  • 2019: Performancepreis Schweiz, Prize of the Audience:[2] Manifesto Reflex Collective, with Monika Dillier, Iris Ganz, Sibylle Hauert, Lysann König, Fränzi Madörin, Dorothea Mildenberger, Sarah Elena Müller, Barbara Naegelin, Chris Regn, Andrea Saemann, Dorothea Schürch, Sus Zwick.
  • 2019: Swiss Music Prize, Les Reines Prochaines[3], Michèle Fuchs, Fränzi Madörin, Muda Mathis, Sus Zwick
  • 2022: Basel Culture Prize, Les Reines Prochaines and Friends*, with Fränzi Madörin, Muda Mathis, Sus Zwick, Chris Regn, Marcel Schwald, Sibylle Aeberli, Sibylle Hauert, David Kerman, Lukas Acton, Dorothea Schürch, Chris Hunter and Michèle Fuchs[4]

Performance

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Collective projects, art in the making and in public sphere (selections)

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  • 2001: Glückliches Radio: Radio Felix, radio play in episodes, Muda Mathis, Sus Zwick, Fränzi Madörin, Hipp Mathis, Felix Platter Spital, Basel, Kunstkredit Basel
  • 2001: Nie gesehene Perlen, television programme, Muda Mathis, Sus Zwick, Fränzi Madörin, et al. Wanderlust, Point de Vue and Viper, Basel DV, 57'
  • 2003: Audiotunnel, audio installations, Muda Mathis, Sus Zwick, Fränzi Madörin, Museum für Kommunikation, Bern
  • 2007: Bonanza II, video, Letzigrund Stadium, Amt für Hochbauten, DV, 3', Muda Mathis/Sus Zwick
  • 2007: Purity and Danger, action, Münsterplatz, Museum der Kulturen, Basel, with artist group Tischgespräche
  • 2008: The road to nieu Bethesda, a cooperation with South African and Swiss artists, organised by Monika Dillier and Andrea Saemann .
  • 2009: Das prekäre des Vertikalen, photography, Foyer Stadttheater Winterthur season 2009/10, Muda Mathis/Sus Zwick
  • 2010: Die Tankstelle, photography, sculptural objects, UPK Basel, Staff Restaurant, Muda Mathis/Sus Zwick
  • 2014: Der Elefant ist da, Ten imaginary sculptures for Helvetiaplatz Bern, an audio walk by Muda Mathis, Sus Zwick and Fränzi Madörin
  • 2016: Performance Chronik Band II Aufzeichnen und Erinnern (1987-2006), Publication, Diaphanes Verlag Zürich/Berlin
  • 2018: Performance Art Roll On, an answer to the Exhibition Performance Process, Cooperation with the art space Kaskadenkondensator, Performance Chronik Basel and ApresPerf
  • 2021: Andrea Saemann und ihr Werk Podcast in 12 parts, Muda Mathis, Chris Regn and Andrea Saemann
  • 2022: BANG BANG translokale Performance Geschichte:n, Exhibitionproject organised by Revolving, Performance Chronik Basel, Andrea Saemann, Chris Regn, Muda Mathis, Lena Eriksson and PANCH, at Museum Tinguely, Basel
  • 2022/23: Erstes Manifest grosser und angesehener Künstlerinnen, at Fun Feminism , Kunstmuseum Basel[5]
  • 2023: Video Total 35 Jahre VIA VideoAudioKunst Exhibition and Radiobroadcast, Amerbachstudios and RadioX[6]

Exhibitions (selections)

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  • 1989: Die Tempodrosslerin saust, 14-Channel Videoinstallation, with Pipilotti Rist, Kunsthalle St. Gallen
  • 1992: Sofie zieht Kreise, Videoinstallation, Exhibition with Sus Zwick, Filiale, Basel. Galerie Prosart and o. T. Lucerne, Theater am Neumarkt Zürich, Steirischer Herbst Graz, Museum für Gestaltung Zürich
  • 1995: Sofies Himmel, Fünf-Channel Videoinstallation, with Sus Zwick and Fränzi Madörin, Kunstmuseum Thurgau, Karthause Ittingen, CAN Centre d’art Neuchâtel
  • 1996: Babette, Drei-Channel Videoinstallation, with Sus Zwick and Fränzi Madörin, CAN Centre d’Art Neuchâtel, Ausstellungsraum o.T. Lucerne, Amtshimmel Baden
  • 1997: Gönn dir ein Schnippchen, Sieben-Channel Videoinstallation, with Sus Zwick, Cargo Bar Basel, Viper Lucerne
  • 1997: Le Ballett Patient, 12-Channel Videoinstallation, with Sus Zwick Reitschule Bern
  • 1997: The Plot, Klang-Licht-Installation, with Sibylle Hauert, Kaskadenkondensator, Basel
  • 1998: Die Erfindung der Welt, Sechs-Channel Videoinstallation, with Sus Zwick, Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden, Palazzo Liestal, Kunstverein Konstanz
  • 2000: Erstkommunikanten, Fotoserie, with Sus Zwick and Tobias Madörin, Kunstraum Kreuzlingen, Karthause Ittingen, La Centrale Montreal
  • 2001: Das Paradies, (Park eins und zwei) Videoinstallationen, with Sus Zwick, Kunsthalle Winterthur, Loeffler Museum, Kosice, Slowakei, Karthause Ittingen
  • 2002: Paar, Videostills, with Sus Zwick, Kunstkasten Winterthur, Nette Homos, Kaskadenkondensator Basel, Female Geographies, Austrien Cultural Forum London
  • 2002: Bad, Videoprojektion, with Sus Zwick, Kunsthof, Zürich
  • 2003: Monts et Merveilles, Sechs-Channel Videoinstallation, with Fränzi Madörin and Sus Zwick, Kunstmuseum Olten, Plug.In, Regionale 2004, Basel
  • 2008: Blume wie ein Haus gedacht, Videoinstallation, with Sus Zwick, Blumensaft, Kunst Raum Riehen
  • 2010: Das unsichtbare Licht, 11-Channel Audioinstallation, with Fränzi Madörin and Sus Zwick, Kunsthalle Arbon
  • 2014: Olga und Olga und die koreanische Grossmutter, 2 Channel Videoinstallation, Muda Mathis/Sus Zwick, Kunstraum Kreuzlingen, Ausstellungsraum Klingental Basel
  • 2017: My House – your Arms – our own Sleep with Sus Zwick
  • 2018/2019: L'Universe Germaine Muda Mathis Sus Zwick and Hipp Mathis with Germaine Winterberg, Kunsthaus Baselland, Basel[7]
  • 2019 Positionen zeitgenössischer Künstlerinnen with Anna -Tia Buss, Alina Kopytsa, Muda Mathis and Sus Zwick, Maura Wittmer, Shannon Zwicker, o.T. Raum für aktuelle Kunst, Lucerne[8]
  • 2022: Elf akustische Portraits, Villa Renata, Basel[9]
  • 2022: Ohren auf, Augen zu, Film ab, S11, Künstlerhaus Solothurn[10]
  • 2022: Fun Feminism, Kunstmuseum Basel[11]
  • 2022 Eine Frau ist eine Frau ist eine Frau... Eine Geschichte der Künstlerinnen, Aargauer Kunsthaus, Aarau
  • 2022: Bang Bang – translokale Performancegeschichten im Museum Tinguely in Basel[12]
  • 2023 Vage Elemente Werkstatt, Installation Single Channel Video, Kobo Art Space Zürich[13]
  • 2024 Die Erfindung der Welt und alles andere, Videoinstallation, Foto-Installation, Mathis/ Zwick, TANK, Basel[14]

Videos

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  • 1988: Das Messer im Kompott, single channel -Video, 13 Minuten 40 Sekunden, Farbe, Ton, 4:3, PAL, Productionsformat: U-matic low-band; in cooperation with Käthe Walser
  • 1988: Japsen, 1988, Video U-Matic Low, 14', Muda Mathis and Pipilotti Rist
  • 1989: Die Tempodrosslerin saust, in cooperation with Pipilotti Rist and Les Reines Prochaines
  • 1990: Der Dienstag, U-Matic Low, 14', Muda Mathis and Renatus Zürcher
  • 1990: Der Waschtag, Video U-Matic Low, 7', Muda Mathis and Sus Zwick
  • 1991: So nimm diese Erbsen, U-Matic Low, 10’, Muda Mathis
  • 1993: Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor, U-Matic Low, 2’20’’ Muda Mathis and Fränzi Madörin,
  • 1996: Babette, Video U-Matic, 15', engl./dt. U.-Titel Fränzi Madörin, Muda Mathis, Sus Zwick with Babette Zaugg
  • 1998: Die Erfindung der Welt, with Fränzi Madörin and Sus Zwick
  • Making off – wie eine Installation entsteht, DV, 4’, Muda Mathis and Sus Zwick
  • 2002: Les Reines Prochaines im Thurgau, 5 Clips, DV, 10‘, Les Reines Prochaines
  • 2004: Das ideale Atelier, Video DV, 16' with Fränzi Madörin and Sus Zwick
  • 2004: Vermeintlichkeit und Zufall, Video DV, 7', Muda Mathis and Sus Zwick
  • 2005: Carte Postale Sonore, Video DV, 7', Muda Mathis and Sus Zwick
  • 2006: Kiev Connection, Video DV 45', mit Fränzi Madörin and Sus Zwick with Les Reines Prochaines
  • 2013: The golden Landscape of Feminism – making of, with Fränzi Madörin and Sus Zwick
  • 2015: Olga und Olga und die koreanische Grossmutter, HD Ton, 25’, Muda Mathis and Sus Zwick
  • 2016: Schlafen, 3 Channel work with Sus Zwick

Discography

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  • 1990: Jawohl, sie kann’s. Sie hat’s geschafft. (LP/CD)
  • 1993: Lob Ehre Ruhm (LP/CD)
  • 1995: Le coeur en beurre double gras (CD)
  • 1999: Alberta (CD)
  • 2003: Protest und Vasen (CD)
  • 2005: Starke Kränze (CD)
  • 2013: Blut (CD)
  • 2020: Zu unserer Verfassung (CD)
  • 2021: Let's sing Arbeiterin*! (CD)

Films

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In 2012, filmmaker Claudia Willke produced the documentary Les Reines Prochaines – alleine Denken ist kriminell.

Publications

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  • Sabine Gebhardt Fink; Muda Mathis; Margarit von Büren (eds.): Aufzeichnen und Erinnern. Performance Chronik Basel (1987–2006). Diaphanes, Zürich, Berlin 2016, ISBN 978-3-03734-634-1.
  • Alexandra Könz: Die Macht des Erzählens – Narrative Strategien in zeitgenössischer Schweizer Performancekunst: Andrea Saemann, Muda Mathis und Sus Zwick, Yan Duyvendak. Chronos Verlag, Zürich 2015, ISBN 978-3-0340-1278-2.
  • Sabine Gebhardt Fink; Muda Mathis; Margarit von Büren (eds.): Floating Gaps – Performance Chronik Basel (1968-1986). Diaphanes Verlag, Zürich 2012, ISBN 978-3-03734-172-8.
  • Klaus Hersche (Red.): Muda Mathis, Sus Zwick. Kulturstiftung des Kantons Thurgau, Frauenfeld; Niggli, Sulgen 2010, ISBN 978-3-7212-0760-6 (Niggli). (Facetten. Kulturstiftung des Kantons Thurgau; 12).
  • Isabel Zürcher: Interview mit Muda Mathis und Sus Zwick. In: Prix Meret Oppenheim. Bundesamt für Kultur (eds.), Bern 2010, ISBN 978-3-9523580-1-6.
  • Annina Zimmermann; Pierre-André Lienhard: échanges 4, Fränzi Madörin, Muda Mathis, Sus Zwick. Schwabe Verlag 2003, ISBN 978-3-7965-2039-6.
  • Katharina Steffen (eds.): Alles wird gut! : Visionen und Experimente aus der Schweiz. Suhrkamp Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1998, ISBN 978-3-518-39407-6 (früher: ISBN 3-518-39407-X).
  • Margrit Brehm; Axel Heil (eds.): Muda Mathis & Sus Zwick – die Erfindung der Welt. Staatliche Kunsthalle, Baden-Baden 1998, ISBN 3-925521-44-5.
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References

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  1. ^ a b Bundesamt für Kultur BAK. "Prix Meret Oppenheim 2009" (in German). Retrieved 2020-10-16.
  2. ^ "Performancepreis Schweiz". performanceartaward.ch. Retrieved 2019-09-28.
  3. ^ "Gewinner :: Schweizer Musikpreis". Archived from the original on 2019-06-16. Retrieved 2019-09-05.
  4. ^ "Das Performance-Kollektiv «Les Reines Prochaines & Friends» erhält den Basler Kulturpreis, der Kulturförderpreis geht an den Verein Sondershop" (in German). Retrieved 2022-10-01.
  5. ^ theartofintervention (2023-06-20). ""Geht weiter als erlaubt. Zögern ist blöd"" (in German). Retrieved 2023-08-22.
  6. ^ "35 Jahre VIA - LIVE auf Radio X" (in German). Retrieved 2024-09-23.
  7. ^ "Auf Welt- und Zeitreise mit Germaine" (in Swiss High German). 14 December 2018. Retrieved 2019-03-02.
  8. ^ Kunstpavillon (2016-06-13). "Zwick Sus". o.T. Raum für aktuelle Kunst (in German). Retrieved 2023-08-23.
  9. ^ "Elf akustische Portraits — Villa Renata" (in German). Retrieved 2022-11-03.
  10. ^ "S11". 11 akustische Portraits. Retrieved 2022-11-03.
  11. ^ zephir.ch. "Kunstmuseum Basel - Fun Feminism" (in German). Retrieved 2023-08-22.
  12. ^ "Tinguely@Home | Museum Tinguely Basel" (in German). Retrieved 2023-08-17.
  13. ^ "Muda Mathis and Sus Zwick - Contemporary Indian Artist | Gallery Dotwalk". Retrieved 2024-09-23.
  14. ^ "Muda Mathis und Sus Zwick — Die Erfindung der Welt und alles andere | Kunstbulletin". Retrieved 2024-09-23.