Alex in Town • ROBERT ESTERMANN

Alex in Town, 2008
mobile sculpture / performance
sandwich cardboard, wood, metal, hidden human engine
150 × 580 × 160 cm
video documentation: 50 sec., loop, usually presented without sound

Alex in Town is a nearly six-meter-long white rectangular volume on small wheels. Its identity remains undecidable. In its 2008 realization, it moved through Grenchen, propelled from within by a person who remained completely hidden. It is never resolved whether Alex is the visible body, the concealed person, or something produced by the two together.

Alex occupies the pedestrian realm: sidewalks, squares, passages, the spaces in which a person ordinarily moves through town. His length gives him a direction before he moves. Forward and backward are inscribed in the body; turning is possible, but difficult. He proceeds carrying his dimensions with him.

Alex is also a monster. A white block can have a face; it can even have a grimace. The more completely it shows itself, the less certain it becomes what or who is being shown; blankness does not neutralize it.

The same elongated white cube had appeared elsewhere in the artist’s work as Animal, as Sex Mobile, as an iceberg or ice floe, and in relation to Elephant Man. “Alex” is one more name. Alexander the Great may pass through it, if one wants him to.

Excerpt from an Interview with Ji Yoon Yang (Director of Corner Art Space, Seoul) and Gregory Maass (Director of Kim Kim Gallery), March 2013, Seoul

JY: How does his performance usually differentiate from his drawing and installation?
GM: Thatʼs a super good question. But I donʼt have an answer to it. But I can tell you an anecdote about a video production where I assisted Robert, not so long ago, which is called Alex in Town.
JY: Where was it?
GM: He wasnʼt happy with me. There is lot of tension between Robert and me, especially when we do something art-related together. I was just assisting. It was in Grenchen, Switzerland. Back then he lived in this for him horrible little town where they produce all theSwatch watches out there and they have some skinheads and a bar and that´s it. But the skinheads are very civilized, because itʼs Switzerland. Yeah? They stopped at a crossing even at 4 oʼclock in the morning when the traffic light turns red. Anyway I helped him realize the performance/video which is called Alex in town. Alex was a huge white Cube 6 meters long, and about 2 by 2 meters. It was hollow, and I was inside driving it through Grenchen. It was Sunday morning when he was filming, I was pushing this block which was on small wheels through Grenchen. It was very noisy. Thatʼs Alex in town. Much later, maybe it was months, I dared to ask about who is this “Alex” by the way?, he said Alex like in Alexander the great, of course!
JY: You mean Alexander?
GM: Yes, Alexander the Great.

views of Alex in Town as documentation inside shows:

studio work:

shown in:
“Schaustück, Schaustücke”, Kunstraum Neuruppin, Neuruppin, Germany (2024, solo show)
“Wild Youths Riot School”, Museum Jajaknamusoup, Hoengseong-gun, South Korea (2018)
“If it works, it’s out of date”, Gallery Shilla (with Kim Kim Gallery), Daegu, South Korea (2009)
“New Sundays”, Galerie du Jour agnès b., Paris, France (2008, solo show)
“24. Kantonale Jahresausstellung”, Kunstmuseum Solothurn, Solothurn, Switzerland (2008)
“Impression 2008”, Kunsthaus Grenchen, Grenchen, Switzerland (2008)