The video artist Mats Staub has been continuously developing his "Feiertage" (EN: "Holidays") project since 2010, in which he poses personal questions that can each be answered with a single number. You see faces that review their lives - faces that can be explored further from question to question - and hear answers that invite you to read in numbers.
As Artist in Residence at SQUARE, Mats Staub realized a special further development of his project with people from different phases of life who are all connected to the HSG: Students, lecturers, staff, alumni and other members of the University - over 20 people aged between 18 and 89 took part in this project, twice exactly one year apart.
They answered the same ten questions in early December 2022 and early December 2023.
The 10 questions and the answers are presented on five monitors in SQUARE, always showing the faces of the same participants from 2022 and 2023 at the same time, from the moment they hear the question to the moment they have found their answer and say it.
Mats Staub uses the context of SQUARE, a seemingly number-focused environment, to realize an artistic project that, while working with numbers, provides deeper insights into human life. Participants had to grapple with their individual definitions of terms such as "in love" or "difficult test", definitions that can change over time. This dynamic provides a fascinating perspective on the changes and continuities in human life.
Mats Staub (born 1972, Muri near Bern, Switzerland) lives and works in Berlin and in various locations where he develops his long-term projects. After studying theater studies, journalism and religious studies in Bern, Fribourg and Berlin, he worked as a journalist and dramaturge before devoting himself to the development of art projects. The works he has created since 2004 operate at the interface between theater and exhibition, science and literature. Staub's long-term projects are characterized by a patient and attentive observation of people and deal with fundamental questions of life in a communal context. He was awarded a Swiss Theater Prize for his work in 2020, where his projects were praised for their coherent poetry and the intense humanity of their portraits.
The final result will be published soon!
