Alex and Felix

Wondrous creatures are gazing from the works of alexandfelix, casting a spell over the viewer which is here to stay. There are foreign worlds waiting to be discovered, filled with very well known objects of our everyday reality - although staged in an unexpected way beyond recognition, draped up as chequered costumes full of shapes and colours. 

For more than 14 years, alexandfelix - alias the two artists Alex Gertschen and Felix Meier - have built their dream worlds together, bringing them to life in lusciously composed photograhic productions. One of their trademarks is the construction of dramatic backdrops. From initial ideas sketches are developed before the hard work begins: timbering, glueing, painting and constructing, up to the point where a small universe starts to take shape. With a complexity that is unique in their field, the artists craft every single detail of their various sceneries themselves. What follows are the costumes and staging of the models with colours and materials that come close to a baroque opulence. In an age of computer manipulation, this working method appears anachronistical, but much more than that, it comes across as refreshingly authentic. 

The current project by alexandfelix, "13 Queens", marks the consistent continuation of their work and at the same time some kind of coronation. For the first time, the models leave their backdrops. They carry the objects themselves as if they were pieces of clothing and by doing so turn into some kind of backdrop themselves. On their bodies, the wondrous realm of which they are Queens spreads out. The insignia of power, the signs of their dreamland, are hanging from their bodies, stick to their skin, stand above head and shoulders. These queens have truly incorporated their sensual empire. Each for herself a proud queen, patron saint of ornaments, ruler over an empire of symbols, in which the viewer is invited to lose themselves.