One Another – Kara Springer and the Collection of Fotomuseum Winterthur

Fotomuseum Winterthur is presenting an innovative view of its collection through a dialogue set up between works by Kara Springer and pieces from the museum collection. In the exhibition space specific works are juxtaposed to reveal unexpected connections and productive contrasts. The interplay between Springer’s work and items from the collection unfolds on multiple levels, in a spatial experience that is informed by commonalities and differences at the level of content and aesthetics. 

Springer – a Canadian artist with Caribbean roots (she was born in Barbados in 1980) – works with photography, sculpture and site-specific installations to explore architecture and urban infrastructure as well as the power structures they mirror. 

The presentation explores diasporic identity, human interventions in nature and the influence that nature has on us in return, reflecting on how these forces interact with one another. Featured are works from the collection of Fotomuseum Winterthur by artists including Besma Ben Said, Tacita Dean, John Divola, Olafur Eliasson, David Goldblatt, Roni Horn, Axel Hütte, Gordon Matta-Clark, Ricarda Roggen and Joel Sternfeld.

The museum’s new exhibition format, One Another, is conceived as a series and seeks to energise the collection through a process of close collaboration with contemporary artists. Springer’s show is the first in the series – and her first exhibition in a Swiss institution. The collaboration thus presents an opportunity for visitors to encounter Springer’s diverse oeuvre while (re)discovering the museum’s own collection. 

About the artist

The artist Kara Springer (*1980), born in Barbados in the Caribbean, lives and works in New York and Toronto. In her multimedia practice – ranging from photography and sculpture to site-specific installations – she addresses structures of power, diasporic experiences, and the impact of human interventions in nature. Mountains – as places of refuge and resistance – play a particularly significant role in Springer’s work. 

Springer studied at the University of Toronto, ENSCI – Les Ateliers (Paris), and the Tyler School of Art and Architecture, Temple University (Philadelphia). Her work has been exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Art Toronto (MOCA Toronto), Artists Space (New York), the Institute of Contemporary Art, University of Pennsylvania (ICA Philadelphia), the National Art Gallery of The Bahamas (NAGB), the National Gallery of Jamaica, and the Museum Angewandte Kunst (Frankfurt am Main). 

She is a graduate of the Independent Study Program (ISP) at the Whitney Museum of American Art and was a fellow of the Core Residency Program, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.