Random Institute is a testing ground for new exhibition formats and random ideas.
About
Random Institute is an extension of what a contemporary art institution can be, that is to say, truly unbothered by rules and bureaucracy.
From 2016 until 2019, Random Institute ran the curatorial program of the international contemporary art center Despacio in San José, Costa Rica.
From 2016 until 2019, Random Institute ran the curatorial program of the international contemporary art center Despacio in San José, Costa Rica.
People behind
Random Institute is directed by and brings together curatorial and publishing activities of the co-founders Sandino Scheidegger and Luca Müller.
This site was coded by Sarvesh Dwivedi and Emmanouil Zoumpoulakis and designed by Sandino Scheidegger.
This site was coded by Sarvesh Dwivedi and Emmanouil Zoumpoulakis and designed by Sandino Scheidegger.
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Réunion
Happened in March 2014
Zurich
James Lee Byars
On opening night of James Lee Byars’ 1978 solo show at the Kunsthalle Bern, the museum was hushed and abandoned; a note on the front door read, “We are at the Commerce.” No attendees were expected—Byars’ work was considered too eccentric—so the artist and his colleagues decamped to a nearby restaurant. This anecdote inspired the Réunion happening, for which Byars’ exhibition was reinstalled and the restaurant was re-created.
A throwback to a late-blooming art legend.
ThoughtsThoughtsLike the 1978 exhibition, the Réunion show was closed to the public, only visible through the building’s windows. Similarly, visitors were directed anew by a scribbled note, this time to the gallery’s side entrance, where they encountered a separate space in which the Commerce, a Spanish eatery, had been restaged. There, they enjoyed a paella dinner as well as an intimate account of Byars from the artist’s good friend, philosopher G. Lischka.
'Wir sind im Commerce" stand zur Eröffnung James Lee Byars' Einzelausstellung 1978 an der Eingangstüre der Kunsthalle Bern. So die Legende, die besagt das Künstler und Kurator wussten, dass kein Publikum zu erwarten ist. JLB war schlichtweg zu unfassbar fürs Berner Publikum. So entschieden Künstler und Kurator, lieber direkt in ins Restaurant Commerce essen zu gehen, anstatt wie üblich nach der Vernissage.
Wie damals, so heute.
Der Philosoph Lischka erzählte im nachgebauten Commerce im Réunion mit Originalausstattung Anekdoten über seinen guten Freund James Lee Byars. Der Ausstellungsraum mit den Werken von James Lee Byars, blieb geschlossen. Eben wie damals in Bern.
InformationInformationThe exhibition took place from March 13th to 27th, 2014 at Réunion in Zurich, Switzerland.
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