HIBK (Had I But Known) 2008 GRAND PALAIS (Bern, 2008) SUBSTITUT (Berlin, 2008) STANDARD /DELUXE (Lausanne, 2010) Performance and installation with two round iron stoves, 50 meters of stove pipe, and K3-pigmentprints A3, framed, numbers variable.
Two stoves are placed in the exhibition space. They are connected by black stove pipes that cut across the space as a large geometric line. The walls are hung with images of political and social content found on the internet and digitally altered. For the opening, Haus am Gern lit both stoves simultaneously until the space is filled with smoke, the pictures become invisible, and finally the public flees into the open air. The title HIBK refers to a trope in popular literature, whereby the protagonist laments his own actions in relation to a misfortune, claiming in retrospect: “Oh, had I but known!”.