Delphine Reist
ÖL [oil, olio, huile]

Delphine Reist, «Huiles» [oils] (detail), 2022 Installation view Delphine Reist. ÖL [oil, olio, huile] at Museum Tinguely, Basel, 2023 Courtesy Delphine Reist, Galerie Lange + Pult, Galerie Laurent Godin © Delphine Reist Photo: 2023 Museum Tinguely, Basel; Bettina Matthiessen

Delphine Reist
ÖL [oil, olio, huile]

18 October 2023 – 14 January 2024

Work structures the life of the individual and society as a whole. In Delphine Reist’s art, things take on a life of their own, offering their views on the movement and rhythm of production, or speaking of efficiency and exhaustion: suddenly noisy drills, leaky printers, window blinds controlled by an invisible hand. At Museum Tinguely, the Geneva-based artist also presents several works that refer directly or indirectly to oil as an energy source, painting material and lubricant, as well as to its fascinating fluid physical properties.

Reist Werkzeuge

Delphine Reist, Étagères [shelves], 2007
3 shelves in galvanized steel, Plexiglas, electric tools, electric control
Collection Institut d‘art contemporain de Villeurbanne / Rhône-Alpes
Installation view Delphine Reist. ÖL [oil, olio, huile] at Museum Tinguely, Basel, 2023
© Delphine Reist, photo: Aurélien Mole
Photo: 2023 Museum Tinguely, Basel; Bettina Matthiessen

In works made using tyres, tools and buckets, the artist refers to handcraft and industrial labour – the latter, once massively relocated to low-wage countries, is now receiving renewed attention as part of discussions around overdependency on other states. In her video Averse, neon tubes fall one by one from the ceiling of an empty industrial space: in both real and figurative senses, the lights go out.

Delphine Reist, La pente [the incline], 2023 Buckets from vulcanized caoutchouc, concrete Installation view Delphine Reist. ÖL [oil, olio, huile] at Museum Tinguely, Basel, 2023 Courtesy Delphine Reist, Galerie Lange + Pult, Galerie Laurent Godin © Delphine Reist Photo: 2023 Museum Tinguely, Basel; Bettina Matthiessen

Delphine Reist, La pente [the incline], 2023Buckets from vulcanized caoutchouc, concreteInstallation view Delphine Reist. ÖL [oil, olio, huile] at Museum Tinguely, Basel, 2023Courtesy Delphine Reist, Galerie Lange + Pult, Galerie Laurent Godin© Delphine ReistPhoto: 2023 Museum Tinguely, Basel; Bettina Matthiessen

Delphine Reist, Houle [swell], 2023 Swivel chairs, dance floor, ink Installation view Delphine Reist. ÖL [oil, olio, huile] at Museum Tinguely, Basel, 2023 Courtesy Delphine Reist, Galerie Lange + Pult, Galerie Laurent Godin © Delphine Reist Photo: 2023 Museum Tinguely, Basel; Bettina Matthiessen

Delphine Reist, Houle [swell], 2023Swivel chairs, dance floor, inkInstallation view Delphine Reist. ÖL [oil, olio, huile] at Museum Tinguely, Basel, 2023Courtesy Delphine Reist, Galerie Lange + Pult, Galerie Laurent Godin© Delphine ReistPhoto: 2023 Museum Tinguely, Basel; Bettina Matthiessen

Installation view Delphine Reist. ÖL [oil, olio, huile] at Museum Tinguely, Basel, 2023 Delphine Reist, Jardin d‘hiver [winter garden], 2023 Courtesy Delphine Reist, Galerie Lange + Pult, Galerie Laurent Godin Delphine Reist, Fourrure [fur], 2023 (right) Production Delphine Reist & HEAD Genève © Delphine Reist Photo: 2023 Museum Tinguely, Basel; Bettina Matthiessen

Installation view Delphine Reist. ÖL [oil, olio, huile] at Museum Tinguely, Basel, 2023Delphine Reist, Jardin d‘hiver [winter garden], 2023Courtesy Delphine Reist, Galerie Lange + Pult, Galerie Laurent GodinDelphine Reist, Fourrure [fur], 2023 (right)Production Delphine Reist & HEAD Genève© Delphine ReistPhoto: 2023 Museum Tinguely, Basel; Bettina Matthiessen

Reist Cartouche

Delphine Reist, Cartouches [cartridges], 2020
Ink jet print
Édition Lapin-Canard
© Delphine Reist, photo: Stefan Rohner

Other works address the theme of office work. Here, it is objects of material infrastructure like colour printers, window blinds in perpetual random motion, or the marks left by endlessly circling office chairs that are used to critically reflect on forms of physically and intellectually alienated labour. Reist’s breathing sports bags remind us: under neoliberal capitalism, the benefits of “fitness”, “self-care” and “wellbeing” have been coopted by the world of work as means of increasing efficiency and creating resilience to burnouts.

Delphine Reist was born in 1970 in Sion (Switzerland), and lives and works in Geneva. Winner of the Swiss Art Award in 2008 and the Irène Reymond Foundation Prize, she has lectured at the ENSBA in Lyon and currently teaches at the HEAD in Geneva.

Delphine Reist, Huiles (Detail), 2022

Delphine Reist, Huiles [oils] (detail), 2022
Installation view Delphine Reist. ÖL [oil, olio, huile] at Museum Tinguely, Basel, 2023
Courtesy Delphine Reist, Galerie Lange + Pult, Galerie Laurent Godin
© Delphine Reist
Photo: 2023 Museum Tinguely, Basel; Bettina Matthiessen

In her installation Huiles (2022), Reist questions the basis of our entire economy. Many red barrels stand in line. But they are not properly sealed. Drop by drop, trickles of fuel oil, motor oil, and vegetable oil run down the white wall.

Curated by Dr Sandra Beate Reimann

Exhibition in cooperation with Centre culturel suisse. On tour and Frac Grand Large — Hauts-de-France

Interview with Delphine Reist