Savoir-faire sans panique

An exhibition catalogue from the Musée d’art du Valais in the form of a reduced-size postcard leporello inspired by tourist souvenirs compellingly presents the sprawling installations by Lang/Baumann. A total of 31 site-specific artworks in buildings or public spaces are shown across one to three pages of thin card in high-gloss photos ranging in size from small to miniscule and are arranged one next to another in a strict grid. Different perspectives on the works are accompanied by occasional pictures of their production and tourist snapshots taken on site by Lang/Baumann during their mounting. As the works span some ten years and ten countries, the book feels like a journey through the artists’ career. Design details such as a logo, a rudimentary monospace font with strongly inverted contrast used for titles and page numbers, and a silvery spine reinforce the book’s stylistic borrowings from a souvenir leporello. Overall, the unconventional form should not be seen as an ironic appropriation, but rather corresponds in many respects to the oeuvre. This is reflected not least in the precise production and model-like character of the leporello,in which all elements – including the tiny print in the picture index – appear to have been shrunk proportionally. This is reminiscent of the many models without which Lang/Baumann’s large-scale installations would be inconceivable.

Editors
Sabina Lang, Daniel Baumann, Burgdorf (CH)

Design
NORM, Zürich (CH)

Printing
DZA Druckerei zu Altenburg GmbH, Altenburg (DE)

Publisher
Musée d’art du Valais/Kunstmuseum Wallis, Sion (CH)

ISBN
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