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Autograph is loaning our commission The Firsts – Tilo Frey by Sasha Huber to Kunsthaus Zürich for their exhibition Apropos Hodler – Current perspectives on an icon.
Started in 2017, The Firsts consists of commemorative portraits paying homage to pioneering ancestral figures, with a focus on women from the African diaspora in Europe. The portrait created for Autograph honours Tilo Frey (1923-2008), a Cameroonian-Swiss politician. Just over fifty years ago, in 1971, women in Switzerland gained the right to vote. Twelve women were elected to the National Council, and Frey was the first woman of colour, actively advocating for crucial women’s rights and women’s suffrage.
Apropos Hodler examines the contemporary relevance of Switzerland's 'national artist' Ferdinand Hodler. The exhibition counters one-sided interpretations with the painter’s formal, cultural and political impact, and sets out to view the old and familiar with new eyes.
Kunsthaus Zürich
Heimpl.
1/5, 8001 Zürich, Switzerland
Find directions, opening hours, accessibility and ticketing information on Kunsthaus Zürich's website
Tilo Frey from the series The Firsts, 2021
is a Helsinki-based, multidisciplinary visual artist-researcher of Swiss-Haitian heritage. Sensitive to the subtle threads connecting history and the present, she uses and responds to archival material within a layered creative practice that encompasses performance-based interventions, video, photography, and collaborations.
Huber frequently reclaims – aware of its symbolic significance – the compressed-air staple gun as an artistic ‘weapon’, tapping into its potential to renegotiate unequal power dynamics. She is known for her artistic research contribution to the Demounting Louis Agassiz campaign which aims to dismantle the glaciologist’s lesser-known but contentious racist heritage. Huber also often works in a creative partnership with artist Petri Saarikko with whom she initiated the long-term project Remedies Universe.
Huber holds an MA in visual culture from the Aalto University and is presently undertaking a practice-based PhD at Zurich University of the Arts. Huber has had numerous solo presentations, artist residencies and participated in international exhibitions and festivals, including the 56th Venice Biennial in 2015. In 2021 Huber’s solo exhibition tour YOU NAME IT began at Kunstinstituut Melly in Rotterdam and continues to The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery in Toronto; Autograph in London in 2022/23; and Turku Art Museum in Finland in 2023. In 2018 the Arts Promotion Centre Finland awarded Huber the State Art Award in the category visual arts and in 2022 she received a multi-year artist grant.
Banner image: Sasha Huber, Tilo Frey from the series The Firsts [detail], 2021. Courtesy of Autograph, London.
Images on page: 1) Sasha Huber, Tilo Frey from the series The Firsts, 2021. Courtesy of Autograph, London. 2) Courtesy Sasha Huber.
Commission video: Works from Sasha Huber's commission The Firsts - Tilo Frey, 2021 Video, 4"45' Music by Brandy Butler, ‘Before The Tide’ © the artist. Courtesy of / commissioned by Autograph, 2021. Supported by Art Fund.
Autograph is a place to see things differently. Since 1988, we have championed photography that explores issues of race, identity, representation, human rights and social justice, sharing how photographs reflect lived experiences and shape our understanding of ourselves and others.
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