Lawrence Weiner (b. 1942 in the USA) is one of the figures who had a formative influence on conceptual art, a movement that sees art as a primarily intellectual act. Lawrence Weiner has already realised a permanent piece in the city of Zurich, integrated into the asphalt surface at central urban locations – Bellevue, Limmatplatz and Helvetiaplatz: BALL BEARINGS OR ROUND STONES / MADE TO ROLL / OUTSIDE OF WHAT THERE IS (2007). For the exhibition New North Zurich, which addresses urbanist changes in Oerlikon, Seebach and Schwamendingen, Weiner has put forth an intervention at a place of significance to the history of transport: the Saatlen underpass, the only road link across the bisecting divide created in the Schwamendingen neighbourhood by the motorway. BONDED TO THE POINT OF UNDERNEATH / VERBUNDEN BIS AM PUNKT VON UNTERHALB is symmetrically mounted on both sides of the underpass, linguistically incorporating this act of bisection, without evaluating it: the artist leaves that to the observers.
Courtesy of the artist und Galerie Mai 36, Zurich