March 1st of 2026, Ian Waelder
Ian Waelder, Zungen, 31st January - 30th February 2026, GAK, Bremen. Exhibition view
Diego Diez: We met in 2014, and I remember you were already working. I was already a fan. I remember giving you, as fans do, a gift. These were two rolls of Kodak black and white film; I don't remember the specificities. Now we are twelve years further, and it is the first time that I see a show of yours where photography takes such a central role, as if you have been keeping these rolls in the back of your storage. Of course you have not, because you have been taking photographs here and there and your work utilizes the photographic image, but maybe you could tell me more about the decision for this show? And maybe tell me a bit more about the importance of the photographic image in your work as a whole.
Ian Waelder: Yes, it's true. I've realized it's when I began studying in Frankfurt when I started to have a much more frequent rhythm of studio visits, talking to artists who were at a professor level or students in my class too, and that whole art school environment. I arrived there after already having been doing exhibitions in various places, including some galleries. So it was like I already had a bit of inertia; the wheel was already turning on its own in the sense that it felt natural to continue with a practice, of doing exhibitions, communicating with artists and all this.
So maybe I realized when I got to Frankfurt that I wasn't very used to talking about my work very regularly, and when I did, I always talked about photography. So photography has always been a very important pillar for me, for my relationship with art. It was my first medium too. Since I was skating, I think the first awareness I had of the idea of having an artistic practice was through having a photo camera, also video, and recording and taking photos of my friends skateboarding, very day-to-day things. So it’s like that linked me to a kind of framing, the notion of framing things. The visual idea, of observing, but not just how I observe, but how others observe. I always think within the idea of the lens, the photographic act of framing. It is true that since I was 15 or so, I became a huge fan of a whole tradition of documentary photo, of street photography, from Bresson to the Magnums, you know? That very black and white thing, very traditional. And at one point, I started to transfer that to a practice mixing it with an awareness of the material where the image was printed and all these things that led me to a quite concrete sensibility for materials, but photo as a medium has always been very, very present even when I think of installation at the level of space, of the room.
Ian Waelder, Support System, 2014. Laser print on 90gr paper, duct tape and found aluminum remainder. 80 x 52 x 43 cm (31.5 x 20.5 x 16.9 in)
Diego: I think this was also one of the reasons why I wanted to come see this exhibition here in Bremen because I think the two of us started with photography but in different forms. And I think the two of us also have an interest in space. For me I know I enjoy models and playing around, but you also have a very playful part when doing these types of interventions. And I think this example here in Bremen is the clearest. I'm interested in your thoughts on this. Because of the subject of scale, which is a problem I’ve always had with models. I didn't like it when it looked like a project; I wanted it to look like finished work, and I think you achieved that here.
Ian: Yes, the model is something also very important to me. I remember talking once with a curator who said: “No, I don't do models, I receive the works and I distribute them in the space”. As if using models for your shows was something for losers (laughs). I defend the use of the model in the process a lot because it's that moment that starts the relationship, the first relationship you have with scale after having seen the space or having the images and imagining yourself in there, right? It's when it's really there; as much as it's a model, the space already exists. From there on, everything is always subject to change.
And so here at the beginning, I had an idea that maybe this piece could have the risk of being understood as a big model or an architectural exercise that has too much weight, which has a very big weight obviously, but the idea that the intention of this work, which is a sculpture, is simply the idea of making a room, a space to house this series of photographs, relaxed me. So it's like a suitcase or a box. This series is thought of as growing over the years while I’m alive. Well, not just me but also this plant with which we share age as a starting point. So in 2026, there are exactly 150 photos, I think, and all analog. But maybe when someone asks me, if this happens, to install this piece again, I’ll have double or a bit more. So it’s always going to keep accumulating more presence of these images that I’ve always made in a very casual way. I also wanted to give this series the importance it deserves because I’ve always had these photos very much to the side. It has its story, which for me is important, and I think it describes my way of understanding the work quite well.
Ian Waelder, Liste, Basel, 10th June - 16th June 2024. Booth view
Diego: I think at Liste we almost fought a bit over whether to include them or not, right? And it's almost like, let's say, the first time they come back out a bit publicly.
Ian: Yes, also because I had for myself this thing that maybe haunts me from a long time ago, which is that more traditional part of wanting to enlarge the photo myself in a lab. Which continues to be that very physical part that many people don't understand when they see a lab photograph, which is simply a print. But it's about being in a dark room, measuring the chemicals, doing many light tests, so you end up with a photo with the gray contrasts you really want, and the type of paper, etc. So it's like something very, not necessarily sculptural, but it's very physical. You suffer it in your body, so it has a part like marking a rather slow rhythm, and I have a lot of respect for that process.
So it has also limited me a lot in what I can do, because since I left Städelschule, I haven't had access to a lab like this. So in this series, what gives me a bit of freedom is going back to that more spontaneous part that I think I’ve always had since the beginning with photography too, which was about being able to do prints with my studio printer on different types of paper, different types of qualities, mixing it with C-Prints and keeping that series also intact in parallel with this idea I mention of the chemical process in the lab. They can coexist, but what this sculpture is, this room, keeps growing in parallel; it's like the archive that continues its course until it has to continue it.
Diego: And then one thing that I think you've also been doing quite a bit in the last years and in a quite methodical way is documenting your own exhibitions in one way or another, and especially at quite a detailed level. I don't know how you see it, if you see it separated in some way.
Ian: Yes, I have the need to photograph the shows myself. I always respect that the gallery or institution works with their professional photographers, because I don't want to take the work away from anyone. But, of course, that always has a budget limit. In this show, for example, they planned around 22 photos, which is enough. But at Es Baluard, it was maybe 120 photos. And I had the luck of doing it with a photographer with whom I have a very close relationship. So there I didn't have to do the photos myself, but I was always with him and behind all this fine-tuning, selecting very well. But I always have a very existential thing with making works, especially installations, because, of course, it's like the images become the only thing that remains for the future, beyond the memories of people who have seen it in person. So I always try to document almost every corner, every detail, in a bit of an unnecessary way but like I prefer to have more than less and it's a bit like I have that fear that I only have that time for this thing to leave its mark in some way, so I have a ton of photos and videos of shows that have never seen the light but they are there. And it's ironic because I also hate that exhibitions nowadays depend solely on their documentation and being seen online, I try to work against that at the same time.
Diego: And talking about installations and sculptures, do you see it as a sculpture of fixed measurements, or do you see it as an installation where the room can change in size?
Ian: I don't know because I'm still thinking about that logic, if there has to be one. Because it's true that in the work, when I talk about installation, it's always a response to a place, to a space. Not necessarily in a historical level, but the idea of scale, which for me is essential. This sculpture in Bremen responds to the room's dimensions. If I had to do it in a much bigger space, well, I'm not saying it has to measure 10 meters, but it could vary. I think, as a format, it's still very generous, so it's a question of whether it appears in the future, I'd have to study it and decide. But for the moment, it works as it is because of the height, which is already quite special, no matter where you put it. And for the rest, maybe it should just be seen for what it is, a sculpture. It has these dimensions, and according to which space or show, you, as an artist, gallerist, or curator, put it in a place where the scale also makes some sense.
Diego: I don't know if you want to comment on anything else…
Ian: Well, maybe the answer of the height, because it can seem like a bit of a comic thing, but I was interested in making a space that wasn't comfortable for everyone, but that was comfortable for a kid, like at that age where language is developing, the person is also developing and echoes the relationship with the history of the plant, which is this Monstera that someone gifted to my mother when I was born and that keeps growing along with my parents over time, and that is still in their house and that in the last years I took the photos. For me, it has a very non-monumental thing, somehow. But the idea of being alone there, seeing how a child can react to a space that is almost at the proportion for their body, and then an adult entering, who in most cases has to duck down quite a bit. There is a lot of information, many photos, it's very saturated, but there isn't any order or intention that everything has to be in a grid or even straight, but rather it's like they are scattered in the space. And there isn't any selection either; they are all the photos I've taken of all the rolls I've taken of this plant, without leaving anything out. There are photos that are more interesting and others that are not at all that special. It's that very raw part of spitting it all out and leaving it there.
Ian Waelder, even in a language that is not your own, Es Baluard Museu d’Art Contemporani de Palma, Spain, 20th October 2023 - 18th February 2024. Detail view
Diego: Well, now that you talk about this, I just remembered this thing that later we can take out, because I think this could also be a good ending, but about this other plant that is there, it's from Carina's house… How do you feel about this kind of rule you've broken?
Ian: Yes, there is only one photo... which is a Monstera; the original plant is also a Monstera. So I stayed at her house once alone, and I saw she had the same plant, much younger. And I don't know… That connection was created again with the plant for a very personal reason, which is a super typical plant; almost everyone can relate to having lived with a Monstera in their house. And I had many doubts about whether to include it or not, but I realized also that there was that connection… without being the same plant, for you it becomes that same plant, like when someone has something that you feel a very strong connection even if it's not the oroginal. Another pair of shoes, a jacket similar to the one your uncle had… So that thing undergoes a kind of metamorphosis and teleports there, so I decided to keep the photo. For me, the reason I took it was my relationship with that plant, and I decided to include it, too. It's like an Easter egg, something very personal. For a friendship, almost.
Diego: Cool, well, I think it's good, right? Do you want to say anything else or something you think that...?
Ian: Greetings to my parents.