Title Elegant, massive, atmospheric
Year 2023
Client Roger Bolthauser
Photographer Luca Ferrario
Cooperation Boltshauser Architekten, Zürich
Curators Boltshauser Architekten in Zusammenarbeit mit Andrea Gassner
Producing Schlosserei Kalb, Dornbirn; Mader Werbetechnik, Lauterach

Through its proportions and materialization, the architecture of Roger Boltshauser’s Ofenturm (Kiln Tower) is itself an exhibit. In the interior the special atmosphere of the slender, deep space that flows upwards is additionally intensified so that it seems like a narrow ravine. The tall, massive walls are made of rammed earth, the entrance door and the spiral staircase opposite it are of raw steel. The aim is to integrate the dramaturgy of the exhibition elements in the powerful building, while not competing with the ensemble. For temporary exhibitions in this space the design concept envisages thin panels, each consisting of three images, one above the other. The lowest panel leans against the wall, the middle one is fixed vertically, parallel to the wall surface, while the top one is tilted forward. This allows a good view of each of the panels, even from just a short distance away. The texts are placed opposite on smaller, but similarly shaped folded panels. Here, too, the different angles facilitate legibility and respond to the three almost six metre-tall display panels. Carefully, but with their own kind of naturalness and functionality, these design elements engage the space, becoming part of a comprehensive scenography.

Title Roger Boltshauser, Response
Year 2023
Client Roger Boltshauser
Photographer Luca Ferrario, Thomas Fütterer
Cooperation Boltshauser Architekten, Zürich
Curators Boltshauser Architekten in Zusammenarbeit mit Andrea Gassner
Exhibition duration 2. März bis 23. April 2023
Roger Boltshauser’s artistic work cannot be explained without referencing his architectural work, equally it is hardly possible to fully understand his architecture without considering his artistic work. Our task was to illustrate this and, at the same time, to depict his method of responding to design questions and the consistently practiced interference of architecture and art. Roger Boltshauser entrusted Atelier Andrea Gassner with the graphic-scenographic design of his exhibitions and prints. In its work, the studio spins this interplay between architecture and art further. For example, the cover of the 500-page monograph “Roger Boltshauser” is not decorated with a striking architectural image, but with one of his dominant sketches. This sketch connects to the exhibitions of Roger Boltshauser’s work: In 2021, the monograph – edited by Martin Tschanz and already out of print – was presented at the Architektur Galerie in Berlin, as were various other sketches. In the exhibition at the Galerie d’Architecture in Paris in 2022, this sketch in turn transformed the entrance into a room-sized, walk-in drawing. Architectural models stood like sculptures on mighty black pedestals. Sketches and plans were connected to each other by the same deep wooden frames, as well as by a hanging that spanned the wall. On a filigree metal shelf, selected material samples created the link between the depicted and the material. The Paris show is now moving on, if you will, to the Architekturgalerie am Weissenhof in Stuttgart. But the photographs will not simply be taken down here and hung up there again, the models and the earth samples will be reined in. No, the construction continues. Layer by layer, Stuttgart on Paris on Berlin, the places themselves become part of the history and the development of “RESPONSE”. In Stuttgart, the large-format picture panels show photographs of the photographs from the Galerie d’Architecture in Paris. But it is not just that the photographs document the previous exhibitions, but the models, sketches, and plans also expand and enrich each subsequent exhibition layer by layer with new content and perspectives. And of course the texts.
Title Roger Boltshauser, Response
Year 2022
Client Roger Boltshauser
Photographer Luca Ferrario
Cooperation Boltshauser Architekten, Zürich
Curators Boltshauser Architects in collaboration with Andrea Gassner
Exhibition duration December 08, 2022 to January 14, 2023

Roger Boltshauser’s artistic work cannot be explained without referencing his architectural work, equally it is hardly possible to fully understand  his architecture without considering his artistic work. Our task was to illustrate this and, at the same time, to depict his method of responding to design questions and the consistently practiced interference of architecture and art.

Roger Boltshauser entrusted Atelier Andrea Gassner with the graphic-scenographic design of his exhibitions and prints. In its work, the studio spins this interplay between architecture and art further. For example, the cover of the 500-page monograph “Roger Boltshauser” is not decorated with a striking architectural image, but with one of his dominant sketches.

This sketch connects to the exhibitions of Roger Boltshauser’s work: In 2021, the monograph – edited by Martin Tschanz and already out of print – was presented at the Architektur Galerie in Berlin, as were various other sketches. In the exhibition at the Galerie d’Architecture in Paris in 2022, this sketch in turn transformed the entrance into a room-sized, walk-in drawing. Architectural models stood like sculptures on mighty black pedestals. Sketches and plans were connected to each other by the same deep wooden frames, as well as by a hanging that spanned the wall. On a filigree metal shelf, selected material samples created the link between the depicted and the material.

The Paris show is now moving on, if you will, to the Architekturgalerie am Weissenhof in Stuttgart. But the photographs will not simply be taken down here and hung up there again, the models and the earth samples will be reined in. No, the construction continues. Layer by layer, Stuttgart on Paris on Berlin, the places themselves become part of the history and the development of “RESPONSE”. In Stuttgart, the large-format picture panels show photographs of the photographs from the Galerie d’Architecture in Paris.
But it is not just that the photographs document the previous exhibitions, but the models, sketches, and plans also expand and enrich each subsequent exhibition layer by layer with new content and perspectives. And of course the texts.

Title Wolf
Year 2021
Client Theater am Saumarkt
Photographer Christopher Walser, Cornelia Hefel
The artistic intervention made by Andrea Gassner to mark the anniversary year quotes fragments from Wolf Huber’s most important visual work. Alone the choice of the first name “Wolf“ as the initial typographical visual medium refers semantically to an ambivalent narrative. In the cycle of images for billboards in the James Joyce Passage iconographical quotations from Huber’s visual work are integrated in the capital letters W O L F. Huber liked to make dramatic use of light, shadow, and space. He preferred garish colours and exaggerated facial expressions. The work for the glass cube on Jahnplatz continues the game played with the capital letters of the name W O L F but in three dimensions. Through Gassner’s interpretation of Gothic windows as a frieze of pointed arches the cube mutates into a kind of sacred showcase. The large punched-out letters and the yellow-coloured glass that backs them develop an unusual translucency and an interaction of light and space. *WOLF HUBER* was an important Austrian-German Renaissance painter, printmaker, and architect. Born in Feldkirch in 1485, he worked in Passau from around 1510. In 1540 he became court painter at the bishop’s see there, and in 1541 was appointed Passau town architect. He died on 3 June 1553. *ORNAMENT AND RENAISSANCE* Wolf Huber was one of the most important masters of the Danube School – a Renaissance stylistic movement. It began in the Danube valley area in Austria and Bavaria at the end of the 15th century and extended across a large part of the alpine countries *LIGHT AND SPATIALITY* In terms of content and form light, colour, and space are taken beyond their natural function. Poetry or drama shape the pictures in which nature and human beings blend to create a single entity. Instead of noble restraint, there is strong emotion, instead of harmony distorted proportions. *COLOUR AND EMOTION* Wolf Huber liked to use garish colours and exaggerated facial expressions. Human beings are depicted as vulnerable creatures; not composed but furious or fearful, they do not simply accept but suffer. Even the faces of the animals express deep feelings.
Title Woodpassage
Year 2019
Client proHolz Austria proHolz Bayern Lignum Schweiz
Production Fetz Holzbau GmbH, Egg; Mader Werbetechnik, Lauterach
Planning TU München Hermann Kaufmann, Maren Kohaus
Awards Vorarlberger Holzbaupreis, Iconic Awards, Innovative Architecture
A tree grows in the forest – wood comes from the tree – and the wood becomes a house. The wooden “woodpassage” sculpture placed outdoors in the centre of Europe exemplifies this process. With simple pictographic symbols over forty stages, it conveys the transformation from fir to house. This conversion is shown by the Atelier Andrea Gassner as cuts out of large blocks of wood, cut by cut. The result is a sensory experience; consisting of four wooden gates, 4.32 m wide, 4.32 m high and 8.65 m long, the “woodpassage” expresses a strong three-dimensional message when viewed from afar. Whilst strolling through the cheerfully illuminated passage, it becomes playful ambassador for the ecological advantages of timber construction. *From tree to house!* Experience the walk-in installation. An initiative of proHolz Austria, proHolz Bavaria, Lignum Switzerland *Forests create a good climate and the resource wood.* Through sustainable management, forestry ensures the forest habitat and the availability of wood. The forest area in Europe grows by 1,500 soccer fields every day. Only 2/3 of the growth are actually used. *Wood is available and offers a chance to change resource use.* The construction sector accounts for around 40% of all resources. The use of building products made from renewable raw materials saves and secures resources for the future. About 13 cubic meters of wood were needed for the construction of these 4 gates. This amount grows back in Europe’s forests in 1/2 a second. *Building with wood protects our climate.* The photosynthesis of the trees binds 1 ton of CO2 in 1 cubic meter of wood. Timber buildings extend carbon storage capacity and thus relieve the climate in a sustainable way. About 13 tons of CO2 are permanently bound in the wood of these 4 gates. This corresponds to the pollutant emissions of a passenger car over 8 years.
Title LICHT
Year 2017
Client Werkraum Bregenzerwald Thomas Geisler
Exhibition construction Georg Bechter Licht, Langenegg; Elektro Willi, Alberschwende; Felder Metall, Andelsbuch; Kongresskultur Bregenz; Tischlerei Feuerstein, Egg; Werbe Erath, Bizau; Werkraum Bregenzerwald
Texts Reinhard Gassner, Thomas Geisler
In keeping with a quote from the famous architect Le Corbusier stating that light and shade reveal the form, this year’s Werkraumschau is presenting products from various workshops of the Werkraum Bregenzerwald in a scenario of spotlights. The Werkraumhaus, designed by Swiss architect Peter Zumthor as a multi-functional building, becomes the stage and the handicrafts the actors in a continually changing play of daylight and artificial light. Stage floodlights generate an immaterial and atmospheric architecture of light, mount the objects in the space, infuse life into their surfaces and forms, and trace a graphical shadowplay on the floor of the building. For the wall sign Andrea Gassner developed a three-dimensional solution using mirrored capital letters which, through the shadows they cast, mutate into a clearly legible word. The Letters were also used as the keyvisual for advertising. We cannot imagine everyday life without light but devote little attention to its phenomena and qualities. Good lighting design makes an essential contribution to our feeling of well-being and can sculpt spaces and furnishings. Visitors are invited to sharpen their own perception at entertaining interactive stations, to test qualities of light and acquire practical knowledge for themselves: how is light output evaluated? What effects does the light temperature have? How can we make things disappear with coloured light? The Werkraumschau is the annual exhibition platform for Werkraum members. The renowned graphics and communication bureau Atelier Gassner based in Vorarlberg was invited to design a thematic and scenographic presentation of the collectively established “shop window” that extends throughout the Bregenz Forest.