**The Drawings** * [Drawing Nr. 1](https://bernhardhuwiler.kleio.com/record/work/36): Minneapolis, MN, following a railway track (March 17, 1998) * [Drawing Nr. 2](https://bernhardhuwiler.kleio.com/record/work/37): International Airport Minneapolis - Saint Paul, MN an extension of the runway (March 24, 1998) * [Drawing Nr. 3](https://bernhardhuwiler.kleio.com/record/work/38): Cameo, CO (April l, 1998) * [Drawing Nr. 4](https://bernhardhuwiler.kleio.com/record/work/39): Moab, UT, Sand Fiats (April 2, 1998) * [Drawing Nr. 5](https://bernhardhuwiler.kleio.com/record/work/40): Castel Valley, UT (April 3, l 998) * [Drawing Nr. 6](https://bernhardhuwiler.kleio.com/record/work/41): Des Moines, IA (May 4, 1998) * [Drawing Nr. 7](https://bernhardhuwiler.kleio.com/record/work/42): West of Oklahoma City, OK, Highway 40 (May 5, 1998) * [Drawing Nr. 8](https://bernhardhuwiler.kleio.com/record/work/43): Palo Duro Canyon, TX (May 6, 1998) * [Drawing Nr. 9](https://bernhardhuwiler.kleio.com/record/work/44): White Sands Dunes, NM (May 9, 1998) * [Drawing Nr. 10](https://bernhardhuwiler.kleio.com/record/work/45): Near Los Alamos, NM (May 15, 1998) * [Drawing Nr. 11](https://bernhardhuwiler.kleio.com/record/work/46): Keensburg, CO, parking lot (May 16, 1998) * [Drawing Nr. 12](https://bernhardhuwiler.kleio.com/record/work/47): Near Fort Kearney, NE (May 16, 1998) * [Drawing Nr. 13](https://bernhardhuwiler.kleio.com/record/work/48): In Omaha, NE (May 17, 1998) * [Drawing Nr. 14](https://bernhardhuwiler.kleio.com/record/work/49): Jeffers Petroglyphs site, MN (May 26, 1998) * [Drawing Nr. 15](https://bernhardhuwiler.kleio.com/record/work/50): Badlands, SD (July 11, 1998) * [Drawing Nr. 16](https://bernhardhuwiler.kleio.com/record/work/51): Black Hills, SD (July 16, 1998) * [Drawing Nr. 17](https://bernhardhuwiler.kleio.com/record/work/52): North Dakota (August 1998) * [Drawing Nr. 18](https://bernhardhuwiler.kleio.com/record/work/53): On a lava field in Idaho, ID (August 1998) * [Drawing Nr. 19](https://bernhardhuwiler.kleio.com/record/work/54): Pacific ocean shore near Albion, CA (August 1998) * [Drawing Nr. 20](https://bernhardhuwiler.kleio.com/record/work/55): Downtown San Francisco, CA (August 22, 1998) * [Drawing Nr. 21](https://bernhardhuwiler.kleio.com/record/work/56): Manhattan - New York, NY (November 27, 1999) *** **Ausstellungen und Screenings
(Teile daraus wurden gezeigt, Installation):**

**pac (poste d’art contemporain)**
Fenstergalerie, Cribletgasse 14, Fribourg
1998

**Six Counties Access TV**, Glenwood, Utah, USA, 1998

**Canyonlands Film and Video Festival**
Moab, Utah, USA
02.-04.04.1998 *** **Vom Zeichnen**
Paul Bunyan war ein mächtiger Holzfäller aus South Dakota. Selber riesengross wurde er von einem blauen Ochsen mit Namen Babe begleitet. Eine Legende erzählt die Abenteuer und Erlebnisse dieser Gefährten. Durch Arbeit, manchmal auch Ungeschicklichkeit, hinterliessen die beiden verschiedenste Spuren in der Landschaft des Mittleren Westens bis hin zur Westküste der Vereinigten Staaten.

In Bernhard Huwilers Werk finden sich vielerlei Bezüge zur Geschichte dieses Riesen und dessen blauen Ochsen. Was Wunder also, dass er während seines dreijährigen Aufenthaltes im Mittleren Westen, in Minneapolis, auf die Legende stiess. Von dort aus begann er das "Drawing Project" und bereiste das ganze Land mit einem Rucksack voll blauem Sand und einer Videokamera. Beim «Begehen» des Landes hinterliess er mit dem Sand Spuren und Zeichen in der Landschaft sowie im urbanen Raum. Die zurückbleibenden, ephemeren Spuren sind die einzigen Überbleibsel der Aktionen am Ort des Geschehens. Daher ist bei all diesen gross angelegten Zeichnungsperformances die Aufzeichnung mittels Videokamera eminent wichtig, da sie nach dem sukzessiven Verschwinden der originären Landschaftszeichnung zur eigentlichen Arbeit mutiert.

Bernhard Huwiler weitete in seinem Werk den Zeichnungsbegriff mit Einbezug verschiedener künstlerischer Techniken sukzessive aus: Zeichenmittel und Zeichnungsgrund werden mit einem Mal nebensächlich, es geht vielmehr um den Akt des Zeichnens selbst. Er setzt seine Arbeiten in einen realen, lebensnahen Kontext, konfrontiert sie mit dem Alltäglichen, losgelöst von einer musealen "Isolation". Man könnte ihn mit einem Graffiti-Künstler vergleichen, der an einem passenden Ort, mit dem passenden Mittel eine passende Arbeit platziert - gedacht für die Ewigkeit, gemacht für den Moment.

**Text:** Bernhard Bischoff, 2008 *** The Drawing Project is about the nature of drawing. Drawing as a bodily movement, as mark making and memorizing, as an intellectual journey.
I performed 21 drawings by walking with blue sand in my backpack leaving a trail behind me. The sand seeps onto the ground from a tube fastened to the bottom of my backpack. While l walk forward, the sand marks my trail behind me. The ground becomes an analogue for the "flatbed" picture plane, like a horizontal canvas: a surface that tabulates information.
In a second step l follow the line with a video camera suspended from a boom. I use the camera as a viewing machine to spy out the evolution of the drawing on the ground. The camera cannot capture an entire drawing at once, just as no one can see the entire drawing. Only parts are visible at one time. The journey of the camera causes a restless image on the monitor.
l consider these performances, this distinct process of mark making, as a kind of drawing tool, enabling me to create an endless variety of drawings at various sites, wherever l move throughout the United States. l produce a map as l browse the country.
The lines drawn in the open are left to change and erode under local conditions. The drawings are ephemeral, they will fade out, be wiped away, be erased and disappear soon. What is left is an accumulation of videotaped lines drawn throughout the country. The Drawing Project is a diary of may adventurous journey in the United States, is the memory of an artistic gesture. The Drawing Project is a mapping of my personal experience in the United States and emphasizes the art history of this country, from the petroglyphs of the Native Americans to Land Art and Earthworks.

**Text:** Bernhard Huwiler, 2000 *** The result of a free moving point is a line. A line is a drawing. What if this moving point is not the top of the artist's pencil at all, but the artist himself who walks through the landscape, the cityscape?

The DRAWING PROJECT is about the nature of drawing. Drawing as an intellectual journey, a bodily movement, mark making and memorizing.

In a physical way, I performed 21 drawings by walking with blue sand in my backpack leaving a trail behind me. l use colored sand which l carry in a large backpack. The sand seeps onto the ground from a tube fastened to the bottom of my backpack. While l walk forward, the sand marks my trail behind me. The ground becomes an analogue for the "flatbed" picture plane. It acts like a horizontal canvas, a flat surface that tabulates information.

In a second step l follow the line with a video camera suspended from a boom. I use the camera as a viewing machine to spy out the evolution of the drawing on the ground. The camera cannot capture an entire drawing at once, just as no one can see the entire drawing from his point of view. Only fragments are visible at one time. The journey of the camera causes a restless image on the monitor.

l consider these performances, this distinct process of mark making, as a kind of drawing tool - enabling me to create an endless variety of drawings at various sites. Wherever l move throughout the United States, l produce a map as l browse the country. The lines drawn in the open are left to change and erode under natural conditions. The drawings are ephemeral in nature, they will fade out, be wiped away, be erased and disappear soon. What is left is an accumulation of videotaped lines drawn all over the United States. It is the memory of an artistic gesture. The DRAWING PROJECT is a mapping of my personal experience in the United States and emphasizes the art history of this country, from the petroglyphs of the Native Americans to Land Art and Earthworks.

**Text:** Bernhard Huwiler, Bern, 2007