Vitrine is delighted to announce Maya Rochat’s first solo exhibition in Basel and with the gallery. ‘A River is a Rock’ challenges the notion of traditional photography by playing with invented chemical processes, layered and multimedia installations, which will evolve throughout the duration of the exhibition.

In ‘A River is a Rock’, the Lausanne-based artist expresses her frustrations with accepted boundaries in art, as she looks to transitional techniques and materials in her practice as a mode of breaking these down. Printed and projected digital and analogue images are layered; they melt into one another, encouraging the viewer to look multiple times and detect the hidden figures haunting the faded landscapes deep in the background of the abstract images.

Following the install, Rochat will continue to work within the space of the gallery, allowing transformations to occur within the work and presenting an exhibition that changes constantly. This slow ongoing process of images mutating, re ect a world in permanent ux, transitory and vibrating at the beat of the hyper-present. The projected images and paintings engage not only with each other but with the unique space of the gallery, viewable 24/7 from the surrounding public square. Whilst enclosed behind glass, the work will extend beyond its boundaries into the public space. Silver, phosphorescent and fluorescent paint creates physical raptures, echoing the surrounding light. In the same manner that the boarders of each image are blurred by a second layer of organic structure, which is added and arranged either digitally or manually, the vitrine and its surroundings are brought into one view.

Maya Rochat (b. 1985, Morges, Switzerland) is a visual artist based in Lausanne and working in the fields of photography, painting, video, performance and installation. Her work has been presented in institutions such as Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France; Kunsthaus Langenthal, Langenthal, CH; Centre Culturel Suisse (library), Paris, France; Quai N°1; La Filature, Mulhouse, France; [ 7] Photofestival, London, UK; TATE Modern (Turbine hall Offprint), London, UK; Fotomuseum Winterthur, Winterthur, CH; Centre de la Photographie Genève, Geneva, CH; Bâtiment pour l’Art Contemporain, Geneva, CH; Centre PasquArt, Biel, CH and Fotohof Salzburg, Salzburg, Austria.

Maya Rochat is a laureate of the Fondation Leenaards Grant and the Abraham Hermanjat Grant. She was invited for artist residencies at “Project Space” Centre d’art Contemporain Genève, Verzasca Foto Festival and Air Berlin Alexanderplatz. Her published artist books include: “A Rock Is A River” by Self Publish, Be Happy, “Crystal Clear” by Editions Patrick Frey and “A Plastic Tool” by Meta/Books. She published “Vote for me” and “Ma tête à couper” with Hard-copy. Maya’s images are published by international art reviews and magazines such as Aperture, Photography & culture, Yet, Le Phare, Foam, The Photobook Review, British Journal of Photography, etc.