Since 1979, Peter Fischli (b. 1952, Zürich, Switzerland) and David Weiss (b. 1946, Zürich, Switzerland; d. 2012) have been collaborating on a body of work that combines, rearranges, or otherwise manipulates their daily experiences into something new and unexpected. Executed in a variety of media, including unfired clay, polyurethane, photography, and video, their work playfully ignores the distinction between high and low art. The duo is perhaps best known for the 1987 film 

, in which an improbable, Rube Goldberg-esque chain of events unfolds involving household objects and detritus in their studio.

The work of Fischli and Weiss has been exhibited at major museums and biennials around the world. The artists represented Switzerland at the Venice Biennale in 1995 and were awarded the 2003 Golden Lion for 

 (1981-2002), an installation of more than a thousand existential queries collected over several years. Fischli and Weiss also took part in Documenta 8 (1987) and 10 (1997). Their retrospective 

 was organized by the Walker Art Center in 1996 and traveled to San Francisco, Philadelphia, and Boston. In 2006 Tate Modern presented another retrospective, 

, which traveled to the Kunsthaus Zürich and the Deichtorhallen Hamburg. They participated in Venice’s 2012 Architectural Biennale and 2013 Art Biennale and have had exhibitions at the Art institute of Chicago (2011) and the Serpentine Gallery, London (2013). In 2016 the Guggenheim presented 

Peter Fischli David Weiss: How to Work Better

, their third career retrospective, which traveled to Museo Jumex in Mexico City. Peter Fischli lives and works in Zurich.

Peter Fischli David Weiss

The photo series ”Airports” makes up a central part of the artist duo Peter Fischli and David Weiss’ work with colour photography. Fischli & Weiss work systematically with documentation series and in this particular series it is airports, as the title suggests, that is the central theme.

The photographs in the exhibition by Peder Lund are shown alongside the sculpture “Stewardess I”, which provides insight into the artist duo’s work with sculpture.

The parked airplanes, which the photo series documents, represent a fragment of inter- national air traffic. Fischli & Weiss investigate this excerpt in similar manner to how they explored daily life in and aound Zürich in the 96-hours long video installation, which was screened when the artist duo represented Switzerland at the Venice Biennale in 1995.

The artists, who often problematise something which is often understood as “banal” motives, accomplish, with artistic touch, to capture a feeling of the modern space, which is perhaps particularly present at the vast areas at airports. The photographs show airports as we have all seen them: from our own flight, as the machine taxes towards the terminal or from the extended corridors, which almost always provide a panoramic view of the airport and the airplanes that are parked there. With their snapshot motives, almost reminiscent of tourist shots, Fischli & Weiss represent something unique within contemporary art; concurrently, the images are considered to be contemporary icons.

Works