Manuel Schneider’s Es Scheint, Es Strahlt, Es Blendet Mich is presented in collaboration with Faltpavillon, an itinerant exhibition vessel run by artists Michael Ray-Von and Finn Curry. In place of a conventional gallery space with a fixed location, Faltpavillon’s format consists of a pop-up tent, which travels to whatever location the exhibition calls for. This light, permeable framing allows the artist and the viewer to consider elements of the exhibition environment that are ordinarily unavailable or outside the standard frame.

In September, Faltpavillon travels to Oslo to be assembled in the back garden of Femtensesse. Swiss artist Manuel Schneider’s exhibition unfolds in Faltpavillon’s tent with a presentation of photographs of snakes taken by his father, a reptile biologist. These photos were taken outside of an art framework, and develop on Schneider’s interest in making the inaccessible accessible. The photos are selected by Schneider from his father’s immense archive, and being without a specific idea of how to be presented, give the artist almost absolute freedom in how to do so. The presentation extends beyond the Faltpavillon tent into the exhibition space of Femtensesse, where Schneider will present wall works which complement the attitude and imagination of these photos. Manuel Schneider’s artwork balances a careful hesitation with the certainty of repetition. Such a practice is especially poignant in fragile times, where a question becomes a mantra, recited until it becomes an answer itself.

Manuel Schneider (b. 1991, Arlesheim, Basel Land) lives and works in Basel and is a graduate of Hochschule für Gestaltung und Kunst FHNW in Münchenstein. Recent exhibitions include Stark Ist Relativ, The Kitchen at Monk Contemporary, Basel; Just Enough Stability to a Fragile Idea, Lokal-Int, Biel; The Sound Of A Clapping Hand, Amoré, Basel; Portal, Underpass at Bernoullianum, Basel; and Bridging the Gap, Kiefer Hablitzel-Göhner Preis, Langenthal. This fall he is among the nominees for Werkbeiträge Basel art prize and will participate in the group exhibition Animated Matter at La Dépendance, St. Imier. January will see a solo exhibition at Milieu, Bern.

The exhibition is kindly supported by Oslo Municipality and KORO – Public Art Norway.