Andreas Heusser (born 1976) is a Swiss conceptual artist and curator based in Zurich and Johannesburg.

Education

After completing an intermediate diploma in psychology in 2001, Andreas Heusser studied

philosophy Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...

and

German literature German literature () comprises those literature, literary texts written in the German language. This includes literature written in Germany, Austria, the German parts of Switzerland and Belgium, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, South Tyrol in Italy a ...

at the University of Zurich where he graduated with a master's degree in both subjects in 2003. Between 2011 and 2013, he attended the Bern University of Arts and attained a master's degree in contemporary arts practice (fine arts).

Career

During the 2020 pandemic, Heusser began to explore the topics of fake news and conspiracy theories. His original artistic plan was to create a kind of ethnological museum where all the conspiracy myths would be presented from the perspective of their supporters as well as the critical view of science. However, due to the sheer volume of data and stories, this project turned out to be not feasible. Instead, Heusser used his intensive research to create a strategy game: Comploty. It is the first game based on real-life conspiracy theories. It provides background informations and anecdotes about more than 100 current conspiracy myths. The players slip into the role of powerful elites who are working behind the scenes towards world domination. In addition to texts, graphics and illustrations, the implementation of the project also includes 3D design, videos, animations, web content, social media content, AI elements and diffusion strategies. The project breaks with the usual conditions of reception by presenting the artwork in the unusual form of a board game. In 2013, Heusser developed the No Show Museum, a museum dedicated to the various manifestations of nothingness throughout the history of art. The museum has a mobile presentation space in a converted postal car. In 2015, the No Show Museum started a world tour. The first stage lasted from July to October 2015 through Europe, staging around 30 exhibitions in 20 different countries, before the museum arrived in Italy and participated at the 56th

Venice Art Biennale The Venice Biennale (; it, La Biennale di Venezia) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy by the Biennale Foundation. The biennale has been organised every year since 1895, which makes it the oldest of ...

. In the summer of 2016, the mobile museum was shipped from Europe to America, where an 80-day exhibition tour led from New York to Canada, then to the West Coast of the U.S., and finally to Baja California Sur, Mexico. The third stage of the world tour took place from 2017 to 2018 and led from Mexico through the countries of Central America to Colombia. The fourth stage took place in 2018 through Western Europe with exhibitions in France, Spain, and Portugal, including a show at the Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology (MAAT) in Lisbon.

Political art projects

As an artist, Heusser first became known for a series of

satirical Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of shaming or e ...

long-term projects that attempt to bridge the gap between art and

activism Activism (or Advocacy) consists of efforts to promote, impede, direct or intervene in Social change, social, Political campaign, political, economic or Natural environment, environmental reform with the desire to make Social change, changes i ...

, among them: * ''War Development Aid'' (KEH, launched in 2009 with Nüssli/Oeschger), aimed to expose the hypocrisies of politicians who subordinate their Christian and humanitarian principles to the interests of the arms industry. * ''Organization to Solve the Foreigner Question'' (OLAF, launched in 2010 with Nüssli/Oeschger), was conceived as

counterpropaganda Counterpropaganda is a form of communication consisting of methods taken and messages relayed to oppose propaganda which seeks to influence action or perspectives among a targeted audience. It is closely connected to propaganda as the two often empl ...

to the xenophobic campaign of the

Swiss Swiss may refer to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland * Swiss people Places * Swiss, Missouri * Swiss, North Carolina *Swiss, West Virginia * Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses *Swiss-system tournament, in various games and sports *Swiss Internation ...

right-wing party (SVP), which demanded to expel all criminal foreigners. OLAF pretended to be a close ally and partner organization of the SVP, but actually parodied them. * ''Christian Humanitarian Asylum Self-Aid Organization Switzerland'' (CHASOS, 2011) was a

reaction on how media and politicians reinforced xenophobic prejudices by evoking the

dystopia A dystopia (from Ancient Greek δυσ- "bad, hard" and τόπος "place"; alternatively cacotopiaCacotopia (from κακός ''kakos'' "bad") was the term used by Jeremy Bentham in his 1818 Plan of Parliamentary Reform (Works, vol. 3, p. 493). ...

of gigantic waves of

refugees A refugee, conventionally speaking, is a displaced person who has crossed national borders and who cannot or is unwilling to return home due to well-founded fear of persecution.

after the Arab Spring. All three were fictional organizations which imitated and parodied real institutions. The projects mainly took place outside of art institutions, and involved

counterfeiting To counterfeit means to imitate something authentic, with the intent to steal, destroy, or replace the original, for use in illegal transactions, or otherwise to deceive individuals into believing that the fake is of equal or greater value tha ...

websites,

propaganda Propaganda is communication that is primarily used to influence or persuade an audience to further an agenda, which may not be objective and may be selectively presenting facts to encourage a particular synthesis or perception, or using loaded ...

videos, press releases, social media posts, and other forms of dissemination. Tactics like provocation, public interventions, and hoaxes were used to create controversy and generate media coverage in dominant media outlets. Despite the satiric content, the fake organizations and fictitious characters were often mistaken as legitimate.

Curatorial works

* Literaturfestival Zürich: Heusser is the founder and director of the

Literaturfestival Zürich Literaturfestival Zürich (alternative spelling: Zürich Literature Festival, formerly: Openair Literatur Festival Zürich) is an annual week-long international literary festival in Zürich. It enjoys a reputation as one of the "best literary fe ...

(formerly: Openair Literatur Festival Zürich), an week-long literary festival which has taken place annually since 2013. The festival is jointly presented by Kaufleuten and Literaturhaus Zurich. In 2015,

John Cleese John Marwood Cleese ( ; born 27 October 1939) is an English actor, comedian, screenwriter, and producer. Emerging from the Cambridge Footlights in the 1960s, he first achieved success at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and as a scriptwriter and ...

attended. * The Institute: Heusser is a founding member and co-director of The Institute, a project space for performing and transdisciplinary arts in Zurich. Several artists' collectives from different artistic fields (film, music, dance, literature, performance) are involved and contribute with weekly events and performances to the public programme of the venue which also includes research and workshops. * Kaufleuten: Between 2011 and 2013, Heusser was the program director of the cultural venue "Kaufleuten" where he was responsible for the curation and implementation of around 200 cultural events per year, including concerts by international artists and bands, readings,

podiums A podium (plural podiums or podia) is a platform used to raise something to a short distance above its surroundings. It derives from the Greek ''πόδι'' (foot). In architecture a building can rest on a large podium. Podiums can also be us ...

and cabaret events. * Series and festivals: In 2001, Heusser and Marc Rychener founded the

interdisciplinary Interdisciplinarity or interdisciplinary studies involves the combination of multiple academic disciplines into one activity (e.g., a research project). It draws knowledge from several other fields like sociology, anthropology, psychology, ec ...

artist collective

index Index (or its plural form indices) may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional entities * Index (''A Certain Magical Index''), a character in the light novel series ''A Certain Magical Index'' * The Index, an item on a Halo megastru ...

based in Zurich. With index, he organized a number of concert series, performances and festivals (e.g. "Festival der Künste" 2002, "Lyrik am Fluss" 2002–2005). In 2005, he initiated the international Artist-in-Residence program Freiraum-Stipendium.

Select solo exhibitions

* Valie Export Center, Linz, Austria, 10/2019 * Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology (MAAT) in Lisbon, Portugal, 11/2018 * Galería El Sótano, Guatemala City, Guatemala, 11/2017 * Ice Cube Gallery, Denver, Colorado, USA, 09/2016 * Fort Gondo, St. Louis, Missouri, USA, 09/2016 * Scrap Metal Gallery, Toronto, Canada, 09/2016 * 56. Biennale di Venezia, Salon Suisse / Palazzo Trevisan and Lido, Venice, Italy, 10/2015 * Chimera-Project Gallery, Budapest, Hungary, 10/2015 * #Poligon Art Space, Warsaw, Poland, 09/2015 * Grimmuseum, Berlin, Germany, 08/2015 * Museum Strauhof, Zürich, Switzerland, 07/2015

Select group exhibitions

* "Ours Is Not The Only Planet Earth Has Been", Ballroom Projects, Chicago, 10/2016 * Survival K(n)it Festival 7, Latvian Centre for Contemporary Art, Riga, Latvia, 09/2015 * Kling-Festival, Mansbach, Germany, 08/2015 * Kabinett der Visionäre, Chur, Switzerland, 06/2015 * Doing Nothing Festival, Dock 18, Rote Fabrik, Zürich, Switzerland, 5/2015 * "Show Me Show Me Show Me", Centre PasqArt, Biel, Switzerland, 6/2013 * Werkpreis Kanton Zürich, F+F Schule, Zürich, Switzerland, 10/2011

Awards and grants

* 2019 City of Zurich Art Award for ''No Show Museum - From Dada to Nada''

References

External links

Website of Andreas Heusser

Website of Comploty

Website of No Show Museum

Website of Literaturfestival Zürich
{{DEFAULTSORT:Heusser, Andreas Swiss contemporary artists Conceptual artists Political artists Swiss performance artists Swiss curators Institutional Critique artists 1976 births Festival directors Living people Culture jamming Swiss activists