Christoph Büchel

Christoph Büchel (born 1966) is a Swiss artist known for provocative contemporary installations.[1] He received international attention for constructing a mosque in a Venice church and suggesting that prototypes for Donald Trump's wall should be considered land art.[2]

Early life and education

Christoph Büchel was born in Basel, Switzerland, in 1966.[3]

Selected works
The Abbazia della Misericordia transformed into mosquee

For the 2015 Venice Biennale, Christoph Büchel contributed Iceland's national pavilion which consisted of a conceptual work of art which transformed the 10th-century old Church of the Abbey of Misericordia into a generic mosque.[4] Labeled The Mosque: The First Mosque in the Historic City of Venice, it was partly inspired by disputes in Iceland over building the first purpose-built Reykjavík Mosque.[3][5] After a complaint presentet by a member of the neo-fascist party New Force, the Venetian authorities closed the installation, citing permit violations.[6][3]

Büchel encouraged artistic recognition of eight prototypes of the border wall erected near the US-Mexico border. Büchel mobilized support through an online petition. [2]

For the 2019 Venice Biennale, Büchel displayed Barca Nostra, a shipwreck that had sunk with hundreds of migrants aboard.[7]

References
  1. Thomas, Skye Arundhati. "How the Venice Biennale reveals problems with nationalist art patronage". The Caravan. Retrieved 2019-12-07.
  2. Walker, Michael (3 January 2018). "Is Donald Trump, Wall-Builder-in-Chief, a Conceptual Artist?". New York Times. New York. Retrieved 3 January 2018.
  3. York Underwood, 'Life Imitating Art: Iceland’s “Mosque” Installation In Venice', The Reykjavík Grapevine (June 6, 2015), https://grapevine.is/mag/articles/2015/06/06/life-imitating-art-icelands-mosque-installation-in-venice/.
  4. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSBVwk1dQG4
  5. https://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/23/arts/design/police-shut-down-mosque-installation-at-venice-biennale.html
  6. http://ncac.org/blog/art-censorship-in-response-to-speculative-threats/
  7. Pes, Javier; Rea, Naomi (May 16, 2019). "'Absolutely Vile' or 'Powerful'? Christoph Buchel's Migrant Boat Is the Most Divisive Work at the Venice Biennale". Artnet News. Retrieved December 31, 2019.


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