«…this process of making meanders seems to be a self-intensifying process…in which greater curvature results in more erosion of the bank, which results in greater curvature…» (Elizabeth A Wood, Science from your Airplane Window)
« ... the new path, which he supposed only to make a few meanders ...»
(Samuel Johnson)
The meandering of a river stands for the movement of a landscape shaped by the forces of time; but also for winding, non-linear thought structures that only solidify in the process of shaping thoughts in a space or in conversation.
Meander develops essayistic exhibitions in conversation with artists. Current topics include: intersections of history and landscape (material traces and socio-technical imaginaries); (unreliable) narratives and differences of perception; identity and exclusion in the context of Switzerland’s cultural memory/local- and family history(s); neurodiversity; myth, archetypes, time and historical memory in popular culture; new ways to engage with and tell these stories.
Meander projects seek to engage with artists on a long-term basis, often over several exhibitions, fostering continuous exchange on an expanding group of related themes, even if the sites and staging of these are constantly changing. These projects begin as research processes or even just thought experiments that are sometimes initiated by Kate, but they are always to an extent a product of collaborations with others. Ideas and exhibitions will expand and develop in conversation with artists, take on new directions and shift over time.
We’re fascinated by and committed to the sensual experience of the exhibition as its own form of producing and communicating both knowledge and affects. Exhibitions like visual essays, perhaps – like cabinets of curiosities, immersive worlds or dreamscapes.
About Kate Whitebread
Meander is initiated by and serves as a home base for text, translation and curating by Kate Whitebread. Kate studied art history and philosophy at the University of Essex, UK, and Cultural Journalism and Publishing at the Zurich University of the Arts. Since 2015 she has worked as a freelance translator, as well as a research assistant and curator at Galerie DuflonRacz, Bern. She manages the gallery’s project space Links, which operates as a kind of link between the independent project spaces and the gallery system. From 2013 – 2014 she ran the project space Off Center at the Progr, Bern. In 2019 she co-initiated the long-term project Had a bad art day, at the intersection of artistic practice, curating and research (presentations at Lokal Int Biel, 2019; Grand Palais Bern, 2022 and What the Lab Basel 2022). From September 2023 she is also the curator of the HKB ar collection at the Bern University of Applied Sciences and Arts.
As a translator, she has worked on catalogues and exhibition texts for institutions such as the Stanley Thomas Johnson Foundation, the Bone Performance Festival, the Fondation Bellelay, the Vitromusée Romont, Edition Haus am Gern, Edition Fink, and artist’s books with various publishers. In 2012 she was a founding member of the off-space association Kollektiv Bern.