Lang/Baumann

Sabina Lang (Bern/Switzerland, b. 1972) and Daniel Baumann (San Francisco/United States, b. 1967) have been working together as Lang/Baumann (or L/B) since 1990. In their artwork, they employ strategies borrowed from various fields, often drawing inspiration from aesthetics of past eras. Their works reinvent our relationship to a given architecture by allowing us to understand it from new perspectives.

For the Ancienne Chancellerie, built in 1779, Lang/Baumann designed three installations without needing support from the historical walls, although habitually, they create only one single work for any given building. Taking the architectural features of the newly renovated Ancienne Chancellerie as a starting point, they responded with their customary techniques: playing with materials and shapes, transparency and strong colours, whilst exploring the space and exceeding its limits, the artistic duo inhabits each floor in a very different way.

Lang/Baumann use very simple but efficient formal methods: their work redefines volumes, diversifies points of view and plays with our perceptions and physical experience of the venue, juxtaposing contemporary vocabulary with this historic building.