Sandra Knecht

Nominee 2018

She explores these politically charged concepts beyond their ideological, romantic, or idealistic connotations during an era in which humanity and empathy are repeatedly challenged. She understands home and identity not as something rigid, but as something continually in flux, as something that inherently transforms itself. Cooking, for example, is just such an act of transformation. Knecht works with a palette of tastes, natural products, food stuffs and remedies, plants, and animals, thereby appealing to all senses. In contrast to gastronomy, her practice is not about standards, balance or reproducibility. On the contrary, she understands cooking as artistic research and the kitchen as studio or laboratory where she experiments with her own perceptions and investigations. She has transplanted an historic barn from the Jura to the Basel port area and has been welcoming guests to her monthly dinner-happenings, here in the «Chnächt», since 2016, where she always prepares five courses, but never the same dish. Knecht understands cooking as part of her artistic repertoire about home and identity, yet she also explores other media, blending images, objects, and narrations that resonate with her persona as a conceptual artist. At Museum Tinguely, for instance, she will prepare a fresh blood sausage — a sensory event that questions how we handle farm animals, nutrition, and consumption.

Sandra Knecht, 2018 / Photo credit: Emmanuelle Bayart Photography, Swiss Performance Art Award 2018Sandra Knecht, 2018 / Photo credit: Emmanuelle Bayart Photography, Swiss Performance Art Award 2018
Sandra Knecht, 2018 / Photo credit: Emmanuelle Bayart Photography, Swiss Performance Art Award 2018Sandra Knecht, 2018 / Photo credit: Emmanuelle Bayart Photography, Swiss Performance Art Award 2018
Sandra Knecht, 2018 / Photo credit: Emmanuelle Bayart Photography, Swiss Performance Art Award 2018Sandra Knecht, 2018 / Photo credit: Emmanuelle Bayart Photography, Swiss Performance Art Award 2018
Sandra Knecht, 2018 / Photo credit: Emmanuelle Bayart Photography, Swiss Performance Art Award 2018Sandra Knecht, 2018 / Photo credit: Emmanuelle Bayart Photography, Swiss Performance Art Award 2018
Sandra Knecht, 2018 / Photo credit: Emmanuelle Bayart Photography, Swiss Performance Art Award 2018Sandra Knecht, 2018 / Photo credit: Emmanuelle Bayart Photography, Swiss Performance Art Award 2018
Sandra Knecht, 2018 / Photo credit: Emmanuelle Bayart Photography, Swiss Performance Art Award 2018