Ceremony by Martina Morger

Venue: In the exhibition

Bells have shaped our rhythms and rites for centuries. In their ambivalence they call to celebration and devotion, yet serve equally as instruments of warning and discipline. Inspired by an old local legend, Martina Morger moves in procession through the space. Rooted in both Catholic and pagan traditions, yet resisting them, Ceremony unfolds as both tribute and disruption. Each step resounds as celebration, admonition, and permeation.

"As if by alchemy, gold and ornaments transform the mundane of a walk into something precious and ceremonial. As a profane performative art piece, this work stands for a loud, even though sweet-sounding, claiming of space." (quote by Monica Unser)

Produced in collaboration with Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein

Martina Morger’s artistic practice interweaves moments of consumption, decay, body and belonging in situational installations and site-specific performances. The central questions she explores in this way deal with individual freedom in increasingly technologized living environments, as well as ideas of power, desire, and care within a neoliberal society determined by work and performance. Martina Morger repeatedly places a specific focus on the performance and construction of gender. Her works can be understood on the one hand as positioning within the existing system and on the other hand as assertions against that very system: Martina Morger actively occupies spaces and negotiates the effects of social constraints on our bodies through strategies of display and visualization. In this way, she creates queer drafts of a society whose central characteristics are hybridity and fluidity, and thus assert themselves against the standardization efforts of our present. Morger studied Media and Cultural Studies in Zurich, Media Art in Vienna, and earned an MFA from the Glasgow School of Art. She co-directs Perrrformat, bringing performance art to public spaces in Zurich, and is active in collectives advocating for artists’ rights. Her accolades include the Manor Art Award (2021) and the IBK Prize (2024). Her work has been shown at venues like Museum Tinguely, Kunstmuseum St.Gallen, Liste Art Fair Basel, and the 58th Venice Biennale.

Born in Vaduz (1989), she lives and works between Liechtenstein, eastern Switzerland, and northern Germany.

Costume: Lia Hossain

Styling: Carolina Misztela