Leif Kauz-Zeller rođen je 1990. u Walkirchu im Breisgau (Njemačka). Završio je studij likovnih umjetnosti, filozofije i povijesti da bi postao učitelj u Stuttgartu, a zatim je bio student master studija na programu Weissenhof na Akademiji likovnih umjetnosti u Stuttgartu (ABK). Sudjelovao je na izložbama u Stuttgartu, Heidelbergu, Wiesbadenu, Esslingenu, Rothenburgu ob der Tauberu (Njemačka) te na Studentskom biennalu u Splitu i Osijeku (Hrvatska).

Leif Kauz-Zeller was born in 1990 in Walkirch im Breisgau (Germany). He completed his studies in fine arts, philosophy and history to become a teacher in Stuttgart and was subsequently a master student in the Weissenhof program at the Academy of Fine Arts in Stuttgart (ABK). He took part in exhibitions in Stuttgart, Heidelberg, Wiesbaden, Esslingen, Rothenburg ob der Tauber (Germany) and the Student Biennale in Split and Osijek (Croatia).

Leif Kauz-Zeller

Zürich više ne gori / Zürich brennt nicht mehr, 2021.

ulje na platnu / oil on canvas

18 x 24 cm

U 20-im godinama 21. stoljeća, kada je u cijelom svijetu jedna politička, ekonomska i kulturna kriza ganjala drugu, a politika i svjetski događaji koji su iz nje proizišli djelovali sve apsurdnije i samodestruktivnije, želja za mogućim izlazom iz tog naizgled apsurdnog "kaosa" postajala je sve neizbježnija. Ali je li doista potrebno tragati za novim paradigmama? Jesu li strukture kriza doista nove?... Nije li baš tako bilo i u doba dade rođene u Zürichu? A nije li to bio slučaj tijekom nereda 1968. i buntovne mladeži punka 1980-ih? Tada, kao i danas, buntovna paradigma pokušaja pronalaženja sreće u ovom kapitalistički uređenom svijetu čini se kao ono drugo, nekontrolirano, svjesno stvoreni apsurd, slobodno određeni kaos koji se ne može uklopiti u smrtonosni poredak malih kao ni u onaj globalni? Pokušaj samoodređenja, izvan svih tradicionalnih normi, kako bi se stvorila i potvrdila vlastita sreća protiv uvjeta, naloga moćnih, općih očekivanja. Čini mi se da ovo malo umjetničko djelo, koje preuzima malu sekvencu iz dokumentarca City in Motion 1980/94, koji se bavi ljevičarskim pokretima mladih u Zürichu, opisuje upravo tu novu, dobro poznatu paradigmu slobodne, samoodređene kolektivne sreće.

In the 20s of the 21st century, when worldwide one political, economic and cultural crisis was chasing the other and politics and the world events resulting from it appeared more and more absurd and self-destructive, the desire for a possible way out of this seemingly absurd "chaos” became more and more inevitable. But is it really necessary to search for new paradigms? Are the structures of the crises really new? ...Wasn't that exactly the case in the days of Zurich-born Dada? And wasn't that the case during the 1968 riots and the rebellious Youth of Punk in the 1980s? Then as now, the rebellious paradigm of attempting to find happiness in this capitalistically ordered world seems to be the other, the uncontrollable, the consciously created absurd, the freely determined chaos that cannot fit into the deadly order of the small as well as of the global one? The attempt to be self-determined and beyond all traditional norms to create and assert his own happiness against the conditions, the order of the powerful, the general expectations. So it seems to me that this small artwork, which picks up a small sequence from the documentary City in Motion 1980/94, which deals with the left-wing youth movements in Zurich, describes precisely this new, well-known paradigm of the free, self-determined collective happiness.

• iz izjave umjetnika / from the statement of the artist