Curated by
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October 17, 2026
Image: Katrin Keller, 'Memorial for a state of emergency', 2026, Courtesy of the artist.
Thursday, September 17, 6-7 PM
NARS Communal Space, 4th Floor
As part of our Art in Dialogue series, NARS Foundation is pleased to present an artist talk featuring Katrin Keller in conversation with Chantal Meng, moderated by curator Katrin Sperry, discussing the exhibition A breath and a breath and a breath and its outlines. The talk will be followed by a brief Q&A with the audience.
This program offers an opportunity to engage with the exhibition, on view through November 4 in the Main Galley. Visitors are welcome to arrive early to view the exhibition.
Within the exhibition project A breath and a breath and a breath and its outlines, Olivia Abächerli, Andrea Fortmann, and Katrin Keller explore self-reflection, precarity, the silencing and amplifying of voices, and the interconnectedness of these themes. Through repetition, juxtaposition, and resonance, the works on view reveal multiple points of connection. Through their respective independent artistic strategies, the three artists pose their questions as physically tangible gestures, offering a subjective perspective on the instability of our existence.
About the artist:
Katrin Keller was born in Herisau (CH). Her artistic practice explores states of transformation, fragility, and perception. Based on specific places, materials, and situations, she develops interdisciplinary works in which geological, social, and poetic processes enter into dialogue with one another. Keller graduated from the Hochschule Luzern – Design Film Kunst (CH, MA in Fine Arts) and completed an exchange year at the Facultad de Bellas Artes, Universidad Complutense de Madrid (ES). She has received the publication prize “spot on” from the city of Luzern (2025), as well as grants from the Ausserrhodische Kulturstiftung (2024), Canton of Lucerne (2022) and Albert Köchlin Foundation (2020). Keller has participated in residencies in Paris (F), Alpenhof Oberegg (CH), Belgrade (RS), Skagaströnd (IS) and Reykjavik (IS). Selected solo exhibitions in Switzerland include tilde space, Chur (2025), Benzeholz – Raum für zeitgenössische Kunst, Meggen (2024), Zeughaus Teufen (2021), as well as at footnote centre for image and text, Belgrade (RS) and SIM Gallery, Reykjavik (IS). In 2028, Keller will have a solo exhibition at the Kunstmuseum Luzern (CH), accompanied by an extensive publication.
About the guest speaker:Chantal Meng is a creative director, researcher, and artist based in Brooklyn, New York. Her interdisciplinary practice explores how artificial light transforms our perception of darkness, eshaping the ecology, politics, and experience of urban nightscapes. She holds a practice-based PhD from Goldsmiths, University of London, and is a Fulbright Scholar, Stuart Hall PhD Fellow, and recipient of a Swiss National Science Foundation Doc.Mobility grant. Working across photography, drawing, performance, and editorial practice, she is the founder of Night Drawing, investigator of Urban Darkness, and a lecturer at The New School.
About the curator:
Katrin Sperry born in St. Gallen (CH) is a cultural scholar, curator, and writer based in Bern, Switzerland. Her work examines the role of storytelling in shaping social and cultural understandings of the world, with a particular interest in how artistic practices can generate new forms of knowledge, reflection, and collective imagination. Through exhibitions, writing, and curatorial research, she seeks to create accessible points of engagement with contemporary art while foregrounding critical dialogue and interdisciplinary exchange. Sperry holds a BA in Popular Cultures and Photography from the University of Zurich and an MA in World Arts and Gender Studies from the University of Bern. From 2022 to 2025, she served as Artistic Director and Curator of Benzeholz – Raum für zeitgenössische Kunst in Meggen, where she developed a program focused on contemporary artistic positions and public engagement. In addition to her independent curatorial work, she serves on the Cultural Commission of the City of Bern, is President of the Jury of the Aeschlimann Corti Scholarship, Co-Curator of the offspace Vitrine. Across these roles, her practice reflects a sustained commitment to supporting contemporary artistic production and cultural discourse.
