Tashi Brauen and Chris Bünter began collaborating in 2020, though their friendship extends back many years. Their working process evolved through a method of intuitive exchange, drawing from the Surrealist practice of the exquisite cadaver. Brauen initiated the dialogue with monotypes on paper, which Bünter responded to by creating circular cut-out collages.
Each work is composed on the pages of Du, a Swiss magazine dedicated to art and culture since 1941. These printed materials carry historical and cultural weight—evoking associations with bourgeois intellectual life, leisure, and travel. The artists’ spontaneous interventions stand in contrast to the edited and structured nature of the original content, creating a layered visual dialogue between image and context.
Their collaboration has resulted in exhibitions in Basel, Bern, and Zurich. For each presentation—what the artists refer to as “acts”—they developed site-specific works using the same source material. This deliberate reuse of the magazine reinforces the project’s conceptual core while allowing each exhibition to remain open-ended and responsive to its setting.
For the current exhibition at Ronewa Art Projects, Brauen and Bünter present a new series alongside earlier works, some of which are featured in Brauen’s recent monograph. Over time, the artists discovered that the reverse sides of their compositions held as much visual interest as the fronts. To honor this, they reimagined the works in a format reminiscent of a magazine. Both the artist book and the monograph are available for viewing at the front desk.