Yves Netzhammer (1970- ), one of Switzerland’s leading contemporary video installation artists, combines the silent drama of digital animation with quirky objects to delicately depict the wandering, irrationally tormented, and atomized grounds of the world and the self. Like the call of the tree leaves that translate the rustle of invisible air into a quiet tremor, the land and buildings in which the works are placed, shimmering in the depths of our memories. When Netzhammer feels these shadows touching him, they often appear in his works as characteristic gestures that plunge into the depths. This first solo exhibition in Japan was born out of the encounter between Netzhammer, the “Diving Man,” and Utsunomiya, a city with a huge underground cavern, the Oya Stone Mining Site. In addition to presenting representative video works to date, the exhibition will also feature a large-scale new installation created on site. This exhibition will be held in a single location, so please come and enjoy a spectacle that can only be seen in Utsunomiya.

His works for the 52nd Venice Art Biennale 2007, the exhibition at SFMOMA in San Francisco 2008, Palazzo Strozzi 2009, the Liverpool Biennale 2010, Minsheng Art Museum in Shanghai 2012, Kunstmuseum Bern 2012, MONA in Tasmania 2013, Kiev Biennale 2015, the installation for the atrium at LWL Münster 2016, Museum Rietberg 2014 and the solo exhibition at the Fosun Museum 2017 in Shanghai have been widely recognized internationally. In Switzerland, Yves Netzhammer most recently presented his work at the Museum zu Allerheiligen Schaffhausen (2018/19), the Graphische Sammlung ETH Zurich (2020), and the Haus Konstruktiv Zurich (2022/23).