John Armleder

No Instruction, 2025. (Tribute to John Cage).

Stack of A2 size sheets
3m x 4m flag

Behind this title, No Instruction, are two works bearing the same inscription, and the same title, one offered to visitors to the Centrale, the other to the gaze of those who, in the town of Sion, look up to the top of the Silo.

John Armleder readily recounts how, as a young teenager, he had the opportunity to talk with John Cage, composer, author, visual artist and precursor of the art of happening - an encounter he considers an epiphany. It was undoubtedly a seminal moment for him and for his art, which is an art of freedom, freedom taken, freedom offered, to the people with whom he collaborates, to those who come into contact with his work. From the creative process right through to the exhibition space, be it a museum, a street or an apartment, the principle remains the same: close nothing off, allow the other to take his place too.

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John Armleder

Born 1948
Based in Geneva

John Armleder's protean work combines painting, sculpture, performance and installation. In 1969, he co-founded the Groupe Ecart with Patrick Lucchini and Claude Rychner, introducing figures such as Joseph Beuys and Andy Warhol to Switzerland. Close to the Fluxus movement, he began developing his Furniture Sculptures in the 1980s, combining furniture and painting to question the boundaries between art and design. His work, influenced by minimalism, the ready-made and abstraction, is exhibited internationally. He pursues a practice that values collaboration and chance, advocates the equivalence of materials and constantly questions aesthetic hierarchies.