SEASON 01 – Olin
ZWISCHENZEIT*ENTRE-TEMPS
Liminal time does not emerge from a birth; it occurs, fortuitously, inherent to our human condition. In 1708, a barn was erected in the rural village of Teufen, in Appenzell Ausserrhoden. At that time, no one imagined its eventual demolition, nor that it would become a relic of a bygone era. In a place that has remained rural to this day – as evidenced by the absence of alternative art spaces in the canton – demolition has never been contemplated.
Today, we find ourselves at a pivotal moment, where beginning and end are known, and where possibilities are both limited and boundless. This liminal space, this vocation to disappear, goes beyond a mere state: it is a human condition.
The three artists invited to this project each explore, in their own way, this ephemeral temporality. Their work is rooted in observation, culture, materiality, and friendship – all forms of resistance in the face of intrinsically finite time. Their placement in time gives their work a unique richness: that of a singular moment, destined to vanish.
Olin Season 01 embodies this liminal time – the time you will spend in this barn that precedes you, but which will fade away before you. It is a culture, generations, time passed, of which no trace will remain, but which you can, for the span of a weekend, between the moments of your daily life, feel, note, inscribe.
You now become its memory.
BARBARA SIGNER
Gate III (Warten in Grau), 2024Gate III (Warten in Grau) is a sculpture from an ongoing series of doors that Barbara Signer conceives as passages, thresholds between different states of being. These structures evoke border zones, spaces of transition where time seems suspended, between waiting and movement, between withdrawal and openness.
In this work, Gate III takes on both a physical and symbolic dimension. While the bench faces one direction – inviting stillness or contemplation – the flickering light of a flower glows on the other side, hinting at a parallel state of vitality.
A tension unfolds between two ways of being, opposed yet inseparable: inward withdrawal, stalled by unease and sorrow, and life, which moves on unshaken and continues to bloom, again and again.
The material itself contributes to this ambivalence. The grey, matte surfaces absorb light, heightening the sense of solitude and stillness, while the flower, with its fragile, shifting glow, opens a sensory breach toward potential renewal. In this play of shadow and light, Barbara Signer invites us to reflect on how we cross the thresholds of our own lives, often without perceiving what unfolds behind us.
Gate III has developed in close collaboration with the performative work of Natalie Price Hafslund (b.1987, Devon, UK). Through performance, writing, sculpture, painting, sound and video, she explores how we shape ourselves, how we relate to others, and to what extent we have agency over these processes. Often linguistic in nature, her performances follow a constant flow of found material, memories and associations – traces that are reassembled into magical and unsettling experiences. Price Hafslund met Barbara Signer at the Mountain School of Arts. Their collaboration recurs – sometimes in place, sometimes through the lives of their works: in the Mojave Desert and along the shores of Lake Constance.
JOSY KRIEMLER
498, Erinnerungsspuren im Fadenlauf, untitled and Egg Matter, 2025In the barn of what is likely the oldest house in Appenzell, Josy Kriemler builds a bridge between past and present. The site led her to explore the Plattstichwebstuhl (flatbed loom) – an important innovation from Teufen that made it possible to realise the traditional Nollen pattern, recognisable by its woven-in dots. In collaboration with the company Tisca, which once took over the local weaving school in Bühler, two textiles were produced on a modern Jacquard loom.
The work 498 offers an abstract interpretation of the house Spiessenrüti 498. Based on a historical photograph of its former owners, the representation has been altered using polka dots and distorted stripes.
Erinnerungsspuren im Fadenlauf (Traces of Memory in the Weave) is part of a series drawing on personal childhood memories shaped by rural life. Colourful silage bales once seen in the Appenzell landscape, a freshly milked glass of milk, or the feeling of tightly braided hair all inspired this work. Also produced in collaboration with Tisca, the 130 cm by 170 cm piece was woven on a contemporary Jacquard loom. The choice of bright pink refers not only to the striking colour accent in the landscape, but also to a fundraising campaign originally initiated for breast cancer research. Proceeds from the sale of this work will go to Pink Ribbon – a direct reference to its original purpose and a contribution to ongoing research.
In untitled, the connection between textile and ceramic becomes tangible: an egg appears as a knitted image in cotton jacquard – resting on a ceramic base. The contrast between soft structure and solid support underscores the interplay of form and transformation that runs through Josy Kriemler’s practice.
The textile practice enters into dialogue with the ceramic series Egg Matter – hand-shaped ceramic eggs that symbolise origin and potential. From metallic glazes to crystalline textures, via polka dots, the enamel transforms the clay into a tactile, vibrant, almost animate material.
There is a quiet poetry in Josy Kriemler’s work. Textile and ceramic do not oppose one another – they flow together. Polka dots migrate from the egg to the weave, from form to abstraction, from the concrete to the fragile. The ceramic eggs, placed in the space, seem to have arrived there of their own accord – present, not arranged. They possess a life of their own: impermanent, yet certain.
Here, transformation is not depicted, but becomes a state – subtle, searching, moving between memory and material, between origin and becoming.
CARO PERRENOUD
I feel like you’re me when I’m you, 2022In the photo series I feel like you’re me when I’m you, Caro Perrenoud questions the boundaries of relationships and the expectations tied to them. The seven images on display depict scenes from an intimate connection whose nature remains intentionally ambiguous. Neither romantic nor explicitly sexual, this relationship unfolds in deep tenderness, where souls seem to blend, to merge, in a vibrating intimacy.
The title, tinged with melancholy, evokes a bond so strong that the separation between self and other dissolves. The naked bodies, united in simple gestures, express this fusion through a disarming, almost childlike nudity. On observation, they are two distinct bodies, but the image creates the illusion of a single being, embodying the idea of conjunction – of soul, of gesture, of state.
This project arises from a reflection on intimacy without love, and on how gestures of affection, like hugging, are culturally codified, often reserved for the romantic sphere. Marked by a journey to South America, where physical proximity is part of daily life, Caro Perrenoud questions the emptiness felt upon returning to Switzerland, where touch is rare and often repressed. Through these images, she explores this relational in-between – a fragile space between friendship, tenderness, and fusion – and invites us to rethink connection through gesture, to open a space of unconditional tenderness, where intimacy is experienced differently.
VINCENT MAUERHOFER
Untitled 03 (Zwischenzeit), 2025Untitled 03 (Zwischenzeit) is a sonic deconstruction built from fragments and layered textures. Starting from a processed motif derived from the opening track of Werner Herzog’s The Great Ecstasy of Woodcarver Steiner (Popol Vuh), the piece combines spectral drones with distorted rhythmic structures, inspired by sonic elements from Mount Eerie (The Microphones) and atmospheric fragments from Biosphere’s Rimanti in Pace. The production employs subtle modulations, spectral transformations, and minimal rhythmic displacements. The sounds are removed from their original contexts, processed, and reconfigured into a new acoustic topography. The resulting atmosphere oscillates between static density and evolving texture. Elements emerge, dissolve, and reappear – as if the piece were suspended in a state of continuous reconfiguration.