Cantonale artists on their work – Flurina Hack

How do we want to live? And could everything be completely different? These are questions that preoccupy me. Art opens up a utopian space. My works are created in a kind of waking dream: remembering backwards, inventing forwards.

In most cases, I realise my installations myself. This automatically sets limits for me: technical, physical, financial… I am slowly learning that it can help to let others help you. Support can come from a network of friends, the Bern Cultural Office for technical aids, and Visarte Bern for questions about everyday working life. Public and private funding is indispensable. Without it, art that is not purely commercial would wither away.

Writing is important. It complements and accompanies my work in the studio. There I use everyday materials such as textiles, cardboard, wood, charcoal, clay, used and discarded items. Everything is already there in the world! After an exhibition period, the works can be dismantled into their individual parts and incorporated into the next piece. I like it when things lose their attributions and functions and transform into something new before my eyes. For me, there is poetry in this, sometimes humour and, in a way, comfort too.

Flurina Hack (*1968, lives and works in Bern)