Pipilotti Rist

Pipilotti Rist
Pipilotti Rist at Fundació Joan Miró in Barcelona Pipilotti Rist at Fundació Joan Miró in Barcelona
Born	Elisabeth Charlotte Rist (1962-06-21) 21 June 1962 Grabs, Canton of St. Gallen, Switzerland
Nationality	Swiss
Education	Institute of Applied Arts, Schule für Gestaltung
Known for	Video art
Notable work	Pepperminta, I'm Not The Girl Who Misses Much, Pickleporno, Ever is Over All
Movement	feminism
Awards	Joan Miró Prize (2009)

Pink tramway in Geneva, by Pipilotti Rist

Elisabeth Charlotte "Pipilotti" Rist (born 21 June 1962), is a visual artist who works with video, film, and moving images which are often displayed as projections.

Life and career

Rist was born Elisabeth Charlotte in 1962 in Grabs, Sankt Gallen, in Switzerland. Her father is a doctor and her mother is a teacher. Since her childhood she has been nicknamed Pipilotti. The name refers to the novel Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren.

Prior to studying art and film, Rist studied theoretical physics in Vienna for one semester. From 1982 to 1986 Rist studied commercial art, illustration, and photography at the University of Applied Arts Vienna in Vienna. She later studied video at the School of Design (Schule für Gestaltung) in Basel, Switzerland. From 1988 through 1994, she was member of the music band and performance group Les Reines prochaines. In 1997, her work was first featured in the Venice Biennial, where she was awarded the Premio 2000 Prize. From 2002 to 2003, she was invited by Professor Paul McCarthy to teach at UCLA as a visiting faculty member. From Summer 2012 through to Summer 2013, Rist spent a sabbatical in Somerset.

Pipilotti Rist currently lives with her common law partner Balz Roth, with whom she has a son, named Himalaya.

From 2005 to 2009, she worked on her first feature film, Pepperminta.

Works

During her studies Pipilotti Rist began making super 8 films. Her works generally last only a few minutes, and contained alterations in their colors, speed, and sound. Her works generally treat issues related to gender, sexuality, and the human body.

Her colorful and musical works transmit a sense of happiness and simplicity. Rist's work is regarded as feminist by some art critics. Her works are held by many important art collections worldwide.

In I'm Not The Girl Who Misses Much (1986) Rist dances before a camera in a black dress with uncovered breasts. The images are often monochromatic and fuzzy. Rists repeatedly sings "I'm not the girl who misses much," a reference to the first line of the song "Happiness Is a Warm Gun" by the Beatles. As the video approaches its end, the image becomes increasingly blue and fuzzy and the sound stops.

Rist achieved notoriety with Pickelporno (Pimple porno) (1992), a work about the female body and sexual excitation. The fisheye camera moves over the bodies of a couple. The images are charged by intense colors, and are simultaneously strange, sensual, and ambiguous.

Ever is Over All (1997) shows in slow-motion a young woman walks along a city street, smashing the windows of parked cars with a large hammer in the shape of a tropical flower. At one point a police officer greets her. The audio video installation has been purchased by the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. This work was later referenced in 2016 by Beyoncé in the film accompanying her album Lemonade.

Rist's nine video segments titled Open My Glade were played once every hour on a screen at Times Square in New York City, a project of the Messages to the Public program, which was founded in 1980.

Pour Your Body Out was a commissioned multimedia installation organized by Klaus Biesenbach and installed in the atrium of the Museum of Modern Art in early 2009. In an interview with Phong Bui published in The Brooklyn Rail, Rist said she chose the atrium for the installation "because it reminds me of a church's interior where you’re constantly reminded that the spirit is good and the body is bad. This spirit goes up in space but the body remains on the ground. This piece is really about bringing those two differences together."

Video and Audio Installation

• Enlight My Space <Erleuchte (und kläre) meinen Raum>, video installation, 2008
• The Blue Fairy in the Valley, video installation, 2007
• Die gelbe Fee in der Allee <The Yellow Fairy in the Avenue>, video installation, 2007
• Ginas Mobile <Gina's Mobile>, video installation, 2007
• Tyngdkraft, var min vän <Schwerkraft, sei meine Freundin> <Gravity Be My Friend>, audio video installation, 2007
• A la belle étoile <Under The Sky>, audio video installation, 2007
• Deine Raumkapsel <Your Space-Capsule>, audio video installation, 2006
• Celle selbst zu zweit, audio video installation by Gutararist aka Gudrun Gut & Pipilotti Rist, 2006
• Despierta <Wach auf>, audio video installation, 2001/2005
• A Liberty Statue for Löndön <Eine Freiheitsstatue für Löndön>, audio video installation, 2005
• Daggrystimer i naboens hus <Dawn Hours in Neighbour's House>, audio video and light installation, 2005
• Homo Sapiens Sapiens, audio video installation in San Stae church Venice, 2005
• Du erneuerst Dich (in Japanese) <You Renew You>, audio video installation as an instant temple, 2004
• Herz aufwühlen Herz ausspülen <Stir Heart Rinse Heart>, audio video installation, 2004
• Apple Tree Innocent On Diamond Hill <Apfelbaum unschuldig auf dem Diamantenhügel> <Manzano innocente en la colina de diamantes>, video installation, 2003
• The Cake is in Flames <Der Kuchen steht in Flammen>, audio video installation, 2002
• Related Legs (Yokohama Dandelions) <Verwandte Beine (Yokohama Löwenzahn)>, audio video installation, 2001
• Expecting (Installation in/for Centraal Museum, Utrecht / Bovenkapel: When I Run I Use My Feet, Benedenkapel: One Jesus in Nature, One At The Doctor, One In The Hotel), audio video installation, 2001
• Supersubjektiv <Super Subjective>, audio video installation, 2000/2001
• Kleines Vorstadthirn <Small Suburb Brain>, audio video installation, 1999/2001 bzw. 2007 bzw. 2009
• Open My Glade (Flatten) <Öffne meine Lichtung>, video installation, 2000 video
• Closet Circuit, video installation by Pipilotti Rist in collaboration with the toilet visitor, 2000
• Himalaya's Sister's Living Room, audio video installation, 2000
• Himalaya Goldsteins Stube <Himalaya Goldstein's Living Room>, audio video installation, 1999
• I Couldn’t Agree With You More, audio video installation, 1999
• Vorstadthirn <Suburb Brain>, audio video installation, 1999
• Cintia, audio video installation, 1994/99
• Regenfrau (I Am Called A Plant) <Rain Woman (I Am Called A Plant)>, audio video installation, 1999
• Extremitäten (weich, weich) <Extremities (smooth, smooth)>, audio video installation, 1999
• Zeittunnel , 1998
• Atmosphäre & Instinkt <Atmosphere & Instinct>, audio video installation, 1998
• Rote Bar <Red Bar>, video installation by Pipilotti Rist, © with Gabrielle Hächler (architecture), 1997
• My Boy, My Horse, My Dog, audio video slide installation, 1997
• Ever Is Over All, audio video installation, 1997 video
• Mutaflor, video installation, 1996
• Shooting Divas, audio video installation, 1996
• Sip My Ocean (Schlürfe meinen Ozean), audio video installation, 1996
• Search Wolken / Such Clouds (elektronischer Heiratsantrag) (Search Wolken / Such Clouds (Electronic Marriage Proposal), audio video installation, 1995
• Fliegendes Zimmer (Flying Room), video installation, 1995
• Das Zimmer (The Room), video installation, 1994/2000/2007
• Yoghurt On Skin – Velvet On TV, audio video installation, 1994
• Selbstlos im Lavabad (Selfless In The Bath Of Lava), video installation, 1994
• Eindrücke verdauen (Digesting Impressions), video installation, 1993
• Schminktischlein mit Feedback (Little Make-Up Table With Feedback), audio video installation, 1993
• TV-Lüster (TV Chandelier), audio video installation, 1993
• Eine Spitze in den Westen – ein Blick in den Osten (bzw. N-S) (A Peak Into The West - A Look Into The East), audio video installation, 1992/1999

Movie and video

• Pepperminta, long feature movie, 2009 – trailer website IMDB
• To See How You See or a Portrait of Cornelia Providoli, video by Pipilotti Rist, produced for the Video Anthology of Blick Productions NY, sound by Anders Guggisberg & Pipilotti Rist, 5', 2003
• Aujourd’hui (I Couldn’t Agree With You More, version chaise longue), video, Edition bdv, Paris, 9', 1999
• I’m a Victim Of This Song <Ich bin ein Opfer dieses Liedes>, video by Pipilotti Rist, music after "Wicked Games" written by Chris Isaak, interpreted & performed by Anders Guggisberg & Pipilotti Rist, 5’9’’, 1995 video
• Blutclip <Blood Clip>, video by Pipilotti Rist, music "Yeah Yeah Yeah" by Sophisticated Boom Boom/Netz Maeschi, 2'27, 1993 video
• Als der Bruder meiner Mutter geboren wurde, duftete es nach wilden Birnenblüten vor dem braungebrannten Sims (When My Mother's Brother Was Born It Smelled Like Wild Pear Blossom in Front of the Brown-burnt Sill), video by Pipilotti Rist, sound by Heinz Rohrer & Pipilotti Rist, 3’48’’, 1992 video
• Pickelporno (Pimple Porno), video, 12’06’’, 1992 video
• You Called Me Jacky (Du nanntest mich Jacky), video by Pipilotti Rist, music "Edna & Jacky" by Kevin Coyne, 4’02’’, 1990 video
• (Entlastungen) Pipilottis Fehler ((Absolutions) Pipilotti's Mistakes), video by Pipilotti Rist. Multiple parts. Two pieces by Hans Feigenwinter, in one he plays a cover of "Lost In Space", one part "Bist Du klein (Are you small)" by Les Reines Prochaines inclusive Pipilotti Rist, rest by Pipilotti Rist, 12’24’’, 1988 video
• Sexy Sad I (Sexy traurig ich), video by Pipilotti Rist, sound with Lori Hersberger after the song "Sexy Sadie" by Lennon/Mc Cartney, 4’30’’, 1987
• I’m Not The Girl Who Misses Much (Ich bin nicht das Mädchen, das viel vermisst), video, 5’02, 1986 video

Recognition

• 2014 - Baukoma Awards for Marketing and Architecture, Best Site Development [1]
• 2013 - Zurich Festival Price, Zürcher Festpiele [2]
• 2012 - Bazaar Art, International Artist of the Year, Hong Kong, China
• 2011 – Best Architects 11 Award, best architects Award
• 2010 – Cutting the Edge Award, 27th Annual Miami International Film Festival
• 2009 – Best Exhibition Of Digital, Video, or Film: "Pour Your Body Out (7354 Cubic Meters)" at Museum of Modern Art, New York. 26th annual awards, The International Association of Art Critics (AICA)
• 2009 – President of the Jury's EXTRAORDINARY AWARD (Nicolas Roeg), Seville European Film Festival '09
• 2009 – Joan Miró Prize, Barcelona
• 2007 – St. Galler Kulturpreis der St. Gallischen Kulturstiftung
• 2006 – Guggenheim Museums Young Collector's Council Annual Artist's Ball honouring Pipilotti Rist [3]
• 2003 – 01 award and Honorary Professorship of the Universität der Künste, Berlin, [4]
• 2001 – Art Prize of the City of Zurich, [5]
• 1999 – Wolfgang Hahn Prize
• 1998 – Nomination for the Hugo Boss Prize
• 1997 – Renta Preis of the Kunsthalle Nürnberg, [6]
• 1997 – Premio 2000 of the Biennale di Venezia
• 1997 – Kwangju Biennale Award
• 1995 – Scholarship of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD)
• 1994 – Video Art Prize of the Swiss Bank Corporation
• 1994 – Prix d’art contemporain de la Banque Cantonale Geneva
• 1994 – Manor-Prize, Sankt Gallen
• 1993 – Förderungspreis der Jubiläumstiftung der SBG
• 1993 – Eidgenössisches Kunststipendium
• 1992 – Zürcher Filmpreis
• 1991 – Swiss Federal Arts Scholarship
• 1989 – VIPER Lucerne
• 1988 – Prize of the Feminale Cologne
• 1987 – Film- und Videotage Basel

Literature

Publications

• Morsiani, Paola/ Hanor, Stephanie/Harris, Mark/Morales, René/Yablonsky, Linda: "Wishing for Synchronicity: Works by Pipilotti Rist", Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, Houston, 2009 [engl. version] (ISBN 978-1-933619-17-0)
• Kempers, Paul/Schreuder, Catrien/Slyce, John/Wennekes, Emilie: Elixir: the video organism of Pipilotti Rist, Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam, 2009. (exh. cat.) [engl. & Dutch version] (ISBN 978-90-6918-237-7)
• Rist, Pipilotti/Hara Museum of Contemporary Art (ed.): Karakaracan, Tokyo/Zürich, 2007. (Artist publication by the Hara Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo accompanying the exhibition "Karakara" at the Hara Museum. Designed by Thomas Rhyner.)
• Magasin 3 (ed.): Pipilotti Rist – Congratulations!, Lars Müller Publishers, Baden, 2007 (exh. cat.) [engl., German & Swedish version] (ISBN 978-3-03778-108-1)
• Rist, Pipilotti: Pepperminta Homo sapiens sapiens – boxa ludens, Lars Müller Publishers, Wettingen, 2005. (Artist publication edited by the Swiss Federal Office of Culture accompanying the exhibition at the Venice Biennale. Designed by Thomas Rhyner.) (ISBN 3-03778-051-7)
• Söll, Änne: Pipilotti Rist, Artists Monographs, Vol. 3, Friedrich Christian Flick Collection, Dumont, Köln, 2005. [engl. & German version] (ISBN 3-83217-578-4)
• MUSAC – Museo de Arte Contemporaneo de Castilla y Leon: Soundtracks de las video instalaciones de Pipilotti Rist, 2005. (CD and booklet, contains music of the major installations by Pipilotti Rist, music by and with Anders Guggisberg, Peter Bräker, Les Reines Prochaines, Heinz Rohrer, Roland Widmer, Saadet Türköz, Cintia Buonomo, Gruss vom Walensee, Pipilotti Rist.)
• Kempker, Birgit/Rist, Pipilotti: Jestem swoja wlasna obca swinia <Ich bin mein eigenes fremdes Schwein/I am my own foreign pig>, Centrum Sztuki Wspolczesnej Zamek Ujazdowski, 2004. (This artist book with a wild text of the German writer Birgit Kempker comes in Polish, German and English. Designed by Maciej Buszewicz.) (ISBN 83-88277-13-8)
• Rist, Pipilotti: Apricots Along The Street, Scalo Zürich/Berlin/New York, 2001. (This is another freestyle artist book also designed by/with Thomas Rhyner with some gadgets. English with only the difficult words translated into Spanish and German.) (ISBN 3-908247-50-0)
• Phelan, Peggy/Obrist, Hans Ulrich/Bronfen, Elisabeth: Pipilotti Rist, Phaidon Press Limited, London, 2001. (This is an informative monography with text and interviews by and with Peggy Phelan, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Elisabeth Bronfen and others.) (ISBN 0-7148-3965-5)
• Rist, Pipilotti: Himalaya, Pipilotti Rist 50 kg, Oktagon Verlag Köln, 1998. This artist's book [designed by Thomas Rhyner] including the music CD 'we can't' realised with Anders Guggisberg. It's actually sold out but there are some copies left in national distribution centres like the one of Switzerland or USA. (ISBN 3-89611-072-1)
• Rist, Pipilotti: Sip My Ocean, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, 1996. Catalog of Ms. Rist's installation issued to coincide with the opening of the museum. Includes 8 perforated postcards bound in two sheets. (ISBN 0-933856-45-8)

About Pipilotti Rist

• Jones, Amelia: "The Televisual Architecture of the Dream Body," in: Self-Image: Technology, Representation, and the Contemporary Subject, New York, 2006.
• Kennedy, Randy (November 15, 2009). "Electric Lemon Girl Power Video Revolt". New York: The New York Times Magazine.
• Saltz, Jerry: Re View, in: Monopol, Berlin, 3, 2009. (pp. 106–109)
• Schjedal, Peter: Critic's Notebook: Tune In, Turn On, in: New Yorker, New York, January 5, 2009.
• Saltz, Jerry: "MoMA's Sex Change: The museum's Pipilotti Rist show cheekily feminizes a bastion of masculinity", December 28, 2008
• Beccaria, Marcella: Pipilotti Rist, in: Castello di Rivoli, Museum of Contemporary Art: The Castle, The Collection, Skira, Milano, 2008. (pp. 446–449, exh. cat.)
• Searle, Adrian: The gleeful anarchist, in: The Guardian, London, July 2, 2008.
• Sanders, Mark: Pipilotti Rist, in: Another Magazine, London, No. 11, Autumn/Winter 2006. (pp. 426–439)
• Söll, Änne: Arbeit am Körper. Videos und Videoinstallationen von Pipilotti Rist, Verlag Silke Schreiber, München, 2004. (ISBN 3-88960-069-7)
• Baker, Kenneth: Stir Heart, Rinse Heart: Pipilotti Rist, in: San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco, March 2004. (pp. E1-E2)
• Steiner, Rochelle (ed.): Wonderland, The Saint Louis Art Museum, 2000. (Interview pp. 90–95, exh. cat.)
• Allen, Jennifer: Pipilotti Rist. Dans la peau de l'image, in: Parachute, Montréal, April/June 2000. (pp. 4–17)
• Blase, Christoph: Pipilotti Rist, in: Art at the turn of the millennium. Ausblick auf das Jahrtausend, Benedikt Taschen Verlag Gmbh, Köln, 1999. (pp. 426–429)
• Anderson, Laurie: Laurie Anderson and Pipilotti Rist Meet Up in the Lobby of a Hotel in Berlin on September 9, 1996, in: Parkett, Zürich/New York, No. 48, 1996. (pp. 114–119)
• Elizabeth Janus: "Pipilotti Rist, video artist", Art Forum, Summer 1996
• Colombo, Paolo: Shooting Divas, in: Parkett, Zürich/New York, No. 48, 1996. (pp. 109–113)
• Spector, Nancy: The Mechanics of Fluids, in: Parkett, Zürich/New York, No. 48, 1996. (pp. 83–91)
• Ursprung, Philip: Pipilotti Rists Fliegendes Zimmer, in: Parkett, Zürich/New York, No. 48, 1996. (pp. 94–98)
• Änne Söll: "Der Traum vom Fliegen – Dienstleistung und Geschlecht in Pipilotti Rists 'Pamela'" (PDF)

External links

• Official website
• "Pipilotti Rist". SIKART Lexicon on art in Switzerland.
• Website Galerie Hauser&Wirth – Pipilotti Rist
• Pepperminta
• Current exhibitions and connection to galleries at Artfacts.Net

Videos

• Compilation of 14 videos at UbuWeb
• Works available at pipilottirist.net
• Objekt: Der TV-Lüster (1993)
• telemaquetime.free.fr: Many still images
• newmedia-art.org – Various works (RealVideo, QuickTime)
• Rist gives a tour through SFMOMA's exhibit
• Pipilotti Rist at the Goetz Collection, ZKM (QuickTime)
• A look at Pipilotti Rist's recent exhibition Pour Your Body Out (7354 Cubic Meters)
• An interview with Pipilotti Rist about the 'Elixir' exhibition

Interviews

• Tyler Green, NO. 267: Pipilotti Rist, Mark Speltz, Modern Art Notes Podcast, December 2016
• Jill Conner, Rooms with Many Views, Interview, 2010
• Phong Bui, In Conversation: Pipilotti Rist with Phong Bui, The Brooklyn Rail, December 2008 – January 2009
• Behind the Scenes with Pipilotti Rist, Pour Your Body Out (7354 Cubic Meters), MoMA, 2008
• Sjarel Ex, Elixir: The Video Organism of Pipilotti Rist on Arttube (Boijmans), 2008
• Michele Robecchi, Interview in Contemporary, May 2007
• Kristine Stiles & Peter Selz, Theories and Documents of Contemporary Art: A Sourcebook of Artists' Writings (Second Edition, Revised and Expanded by Kristine Stiles) University of California Press 2012, Pipilotti Rist Interview, pp. 541–542