If You See Me Stumble

Milva Stutz (b. 1985, based in Zurich) creates large-format drawings in charcoal and pastel chalk to comment on human relationships, awkwardness, insecurity, love, and intimacy. In her video pieces she translates the visual language of drawing into three-dimensional structures, combining acting with digital and analogue animation. Social expectations of the individual and the relationship between human bodies and technology in the digital present are recurring topics in her work. In her largest institutional solo exhibition up to date, she engages with questions about witnessing and responsibility: How are we beholden to others? What does it mean to be part of a community? At Kunsthaus Langenthal Milva Stutz takes over six spaces on the second floor with drawings newly created for the exhibition as well as her latest video piece Delay. The latter deals with a pair of lovers whose parting is delayed by a technical defect. The wait creates a wrinkle in the well-known script of a lover’s goodbye: the failure of technology leaves the two to their own devices and drags their respective ideas of care, dedication, and autonomy into the cold light of day. The combination of live-action film, hand-modelled body extensions, and CGI animations creates a model-like scenario, in which virtual smoothness is contrasted with human corporeality.