For miart, Marie Gyger has produced six new works, including an in situ piece based on her previous Bombshell, which was shown in our first exhibition of the artist (2022) and at the Basel Social Club (2023).

All of the new works are made of paper folded in her sharp and precise style. Five depict multiple collared shirts, each piece with a different arrangement, yet all resembling a particular geometrical space, such as a maze, labyrinth, trade hall, or even yantra (a type of mandala).

In Greek mythology, Daedalus is the architect of the Labyrinth and therefore seen as the first architect and first sculptor, the Labyrinth being an allegory for the work of art. Gyger’s simple compositions are likewise strong enough to function as allegories, a base on which we can build meaning and representation.

At first sight, these repetitions of similar shirts reflect on standardization, and a community that has driven out or otherwise eliminated singularities. Their titles  – like the shirts themselves  – allude to the world of work, management, administration, and order. Both of these elements, singly and together, present a dystopian view of society, in which the individual is lost inside an organizational warren. At the same time, the reassurance of the norm attracts us, inciting our desire to be complicit.

Labor is not just the theme of the series but also the embodied, repetitive work that the artist must perform and that becomes a meditative process. Here the yantra, as seen in Entrepreneurs (2024), takes on new strength, as in the Hindu tradition it is both a symbol and a ritual space for meditation. In a similar way, Gyger’s compositions (both geometrical and figurative) are simple structures that facilitate meditation on the unconscious frameworks of our societies – ranging from labor to anxiety.

The new version of Bombshell (2022-2024) was made in situ of strategically folded paper representing a bomb, suggesting a shelling inside the booth.

Marie Gyger

Marie Gyger’s work is distinguished by an elegance and formal refinement which functions as a veil. She works in a standardised manner as if in a small factory, gently folding under the tradition of Origami. The procedure is based on Euclidean rules that allow to reflect upon the world in a very small scale, as in a child’s game. Each form is measured against the paper from which it emerges within the space that is allotted to it. At first view, their delicate appearance wards off evidence of the anxiety-inducing traits of everyday life, while a contained yet smouldering critical charge lies beneath.