camille kaiser (1992) lives and works in Geneva

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1 camille kaiser (1992) lives and works in Geneva education Research Platform and Doctoral Practice in Arts, Geneva Seminars by Catherine Queloz and Liliane Schneiter MA Critical, Curatorial, Cybermedia studies, HEAD, Geneva diploma with honors tutor: Kodwo Eshun BA Fine Arts, ECAV, Sierre prize of the Fondation BEA and honors for the thesis solo show i don t like to be waiting doing nothing, 1:1, Basel collective shows Amendements, Biennale des espaces d art indépendants, Genève The Feeling of Not Feeling at Home, *err collective, TOPIC, Genève DAF OFF / cinéma bootleg, DAF, Genève Backslash Festival, Povitreff, Zürich BOLERO, Kiosk, Genève The Feeling of Not Feeling at Home, *err collective, Athens Biennal Your Digital Self Hates You, Sadtgalerie, Bern Performance Schreiben, Kunstraum Kreuzlingen Plan Q, Quartier général, La Chaux-de-Fonds Etwas, Art und Weise Kunst, Bern Finissage Tsunami Architecture, Centre d art contemporain, Yverdon-les-Bains Temps de passage, Triennale d art contemporain, Fully Nuit de la performance, Musée des Beaux-Arts de la Chaux-de-Fonds Eau Fil de l Art, Outdoor Exhibition, Morgins Rencontres Orient-Occident, Cinéma du Bourg, Sierre Adolescere, White Box ECAV, Sierre ACT Festival de Performance, Halles USEGO, Sierre Show, Showed, Shown, Manoir de Martigny, Martigny Urban Sounds, Haus für elektronische Künste, Basel Curiosités, Galerie Trait Noir, Fribourg Le labo, émission radiophonique sur Espace Festival Rilke, Château Mercier, Sierre prize nd prize Raiffeisen exposition outdoor EFA, Morgins prize of the BEA foundation for young artists residency artist residency, Vélodrome, Geneva curatorial residency, TOPIC, Geneva

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3 i don t like to be waiting doing nothing for too long outside in public because people think i m waiting for someone who s not coming solo show, 1.1, basel This exhibition presented the initial findings of ongoing research departing from the act of cell phone charging in public. The photographic and textual works are inspired by the subversive, essential use of free access generators and power outlets in Switzerland s urban public sphere. Recalling second hand electronics, the installation speculates on guerrilla techniques, social contingency, and innovation concerning technology as a first class privilege.

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9 on the travelator once again As I expected, the bathroom could be found just as soon as I got off the plane, just as they always are. I entered and began to wash my hands and face, both parched after spending so long in an air controlled environment. The woman alongside me had finished fixing her hair, and she too opened the tap to brush her teeth, wash her face, and generally freshen up. She opened it to the maximum, and left it running while she continued, even applying hand cream and new make-up in the presence of the her small basin waterfall. Once she had finished, she collected her things and was about to stroll out. By this point my anxiety was visceral, as I imagine it would be for any South African since the drought that was still affecting most of the country. As soon as she turned I reached over and slammed down the tap handle to stop the flow. The woman spun toward me: Whoops! Sorry! I said nothing, but looked immediately at the sign that had been in front of her just above the tap the whole time, hoping her eyes would follow mine there. Save water; water is precious, open the tap slowly, close it when you are not using the water. When I peeked again to confirm whether or not she had seen it I caught only the last of her fiery red hair in my peripheral vision, on its way to leave either for a holiday or a connection. It had confused me even more to realise that she was an English speaker. The day prior I was in a bedroom, packing my bags to return to Switzerland and put myself in airplane mode: ready for the procedure that is connecting from airport to airport, replete with homogenous architecture and coffee that all tastes the same. Ready once again to move from smoking lounge to smoking lounge, all seamlessly designed to be easy enough to discover wherever you are, ensuring my move to the appropriate gate when the time is ready, confirmed by the continuous and regular appearance of boarding screens announcing departures and times. The bathrooms are also the same. So much so, that one no longer needs to be cognisant of the signage or instructions. Or so it would seem. I took a connection in Cairo this time, which means flying for at least fifteen minutes from when the lights of a dense city start, before reaching the airport which seems smack bang in the middle. But don t be fooled by the crystal clear pools visible in all of the tourist resorts, clear even from the small portal window of seat 52A. Like in South Africa, things are dry here - precipitated by a distinct lack of rain. But once you are packaged and inside travel parameters, everything changes and nothing does. Repetition, repetition, repetition. What is it that may make the difference, or may draw attention to the ways in which the geographies are so different, when the ablutions are all the same? When the spaces are all arranged properly ; are all designed to have the abundance of resources - water, electricity and lighting, toilet paper, soap, full length mirrors, cushioned seats, travelators and universal charging points - that have become the custom for a global minority. These pin points of proper environments now proliferate everywhere, and it makes me recall a Trinh T. Minh-ha s writing on difference: There is a Third World in every First World, and a Third World in every First. It also makes me recall what Robert Carr described as First World (mis)readings of Minh-ha s appraisal, in which Third World is equivocal only with poverty. These comprehensions neglect access as a point of discourse, and fail to recognise that resource flows and goods availabilities are far more geographically complex than simply determining and highlighting them with different colours on a map. Rather, the map needs to be cracked up when it s opened, to take into consideration that it consists now as a sequence of layers, and each has its own absences and impossibilities. The reason for this is far too many things take place which are invisible to the proper, for which the proper does not account, and for whom the proper was never devised. In order to think about an everyday practice in these terms requires an observation that the city exists in multiplicities which I am tempted to say are uniquely contemporary, and which rely on technologies that have have also become a resource subject to schemes of visibility and availability which ring true with Min-ha s words. In reality, the only seemingly universal resource exists in the arsenal of individuals, and is expressed by their capacity to trick their way through infrastructure, and construct a practice of the everyday contingent on the expedient maneuvering of urban spaces. It doesn t work, then, to simply say: there is lots here, further away there is some, and far away there is none. text by Madeleine Dymond published in the context of the exhibition i don t like to be waiting doing nothing for too long outside in public because people think i m waiting for someone who s not coming at 1.1, Basel, June 2017

10 the feeling of not feeling at home collective exhibition, athens biennale On a period of two weeks in Athens, I have started a collection of objects sold illegaly in public spheres. Objects that have a special link to the city, its political and economical situation. The work explores a practice of contemporary archeology, while remaining ambiguous about the position of the tourist who buys herself souvenirs from her holidays. In the context of the exhibition, a series of photographs of the objects made while purchasing them was presented on a top manta, an illegal selling structure used in urban spheres. The installation was activated by the visitors, to whom I told a story about the object, its prize, the date and place of its purchase and read extracts from the diary I was writing during the project.

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13 day 4 in a. pavlou 2 roses for free (because we re beautiful girls) after we talk she asks us to pay the roses i paid 2 euros for 2 roses she took one rose back

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15 i try to find places we can go (back) together collective exhibition, povitreff, zürich This work is a textual and filmic essay that aims to reconstruct through the use of fragmentation and remontage the experience of showing to my grandmother the streets of Oran on Google Street. She was born in Oran and never returned there after having left a few months following the independance of Algeria. The images chosen were not taken by Google and its satellites, but by amateurs who put them online.

16 was this photo taken today? is this today? today

17 we go to the seaside walk past the empty seafront we go to cafes at nightime we go to luxurious hotels with swimming pools we swim in empty swimming pools and lie down on the loungers we go to an empty pharmacy an electronics store a grocery store up and down stairs we go to the grand mosque and out we go in an empty conference center and stand in front of the empty conference room back to the seafront we go uphills and admire the view admire the view admire the view we arrive to a crossroad take a decision go past houses in front of closed doors we go past streets and squares squares and men are sitting at night on plastic chairs aren t they working? she asks let s go back to the sea, to the sea to the sea she asks again, to the screen, to the screen.

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19 link to video works