BUT I WORLD I SEE YOU Rémy Zaugg (1943 2005) was an internationally renowned artist who
lived and worked in Basel and Mulhouse. He saw himself as a painter yet he would not limit
himself solely to the production of images. Rather from his painterly practice he generated
general assumptions for a processual conception of the work that enabled him to view spatial
architectural and urban contexts in new unfamiliar ways. Accordingly the perceiving human
being as a member of society was always at the center of his considerations all his aesthetic
assumptions led to the emancipatory idea of the »becoming« subject. In addition to his
extensive painterly and written oeuvre it is therefore his activities and projects for and in
public space that are essential for understanding Zaugg s particular artistic position. The
book is dedicated to this socially relevant complex of topics documenting all of the artist s
respective realized and unrealized projects with a particular focus on the following key
aspects of his work: museum architecture (here in particular his collaboration with Herzog & de
Meuron) exhibitions with works by other artists art in public spaces as well as his
preoccupation in both theoretical and practical terms with artistic methodology cooperation
and the work concept. The artist was friends with Herzog & de Meuron and also collaborated with
them on urban design issues. In Gerhard Mack's informative interview with the two architects
Jacques Herzog concludes on the space the two acquired from Rémy Zaugg: »I simply like knowing
that he is near us and will continue to be an influence when we are no longer around. So in
that respect it s a tribute a place where Rémy is present. But at the same time the room
with all its complex history is also a refernce to us a kind of key to our own work.«
