Cardboard interiors


He is a young man with two passports, born and raised in a nation of which he has never been a citizen. His name is Costa Vece, an omnivorous, untamed, disenchanted artist of Swiss, German, Greek, and Italian roots. His charm is subtle and impertinent, like that of his work, whose spirit ranges from anxious to playful, from stark to lyrical, from sarcastic to moving. In Vece’s work material, image, and space all seem subject to a strict law of economy: everything that can be done here and now shall be, with every available means, and in the conditions imposed by the circumstances of the environment. His work includes simple acts such as selling “food coupons” from an automatic vending machine, renamed a “Kunst–automat” (Invitation, 1997, with Regula J. Kopp); turning a storeroom into a video lounge built from discarded cardboard boxes (Chill Out, 1997, with Patrick Huber); or “keeping watch” in full military regalia at an art fair (Watch House with Soldier, 2000)...


The full text is published in "tema celeste" No. 84, March-April 2001.




Stefano Chiodi