Reto Pulfer
R3eticulum 5enza 8ozze

“I have known Reto for many years. Our lives have crossed at various times and in different cities. I cannot recall exactly the first time we met, but I remember it was in Berlin: it was the early 2000s. I would see him at openings, exchange a few words—nothing more—at Jannowitzbrücke, Linienstraße, when the most interesting galleries were still in the eastern part of the city. I later remember one day leaving the house where I lived on Käthe-Niederkirchner-Straße: the cherry trees in bloom, tufts of pollen gathered at the edges of the sidewalks, and Reto emerging at the same time as I did from the shop window of what must once have been a store but which I knew
to be Rirkrit Tiravanija’s studio. I believe he worked for him as an assistant then, though I’m not certain; I must remember to ask him. A nod of greeting, and each of us went our own way.

A few years later, toward the end of the 2000s, in Rome at the Pastificio Cerere—where I had been in residence the year before—I came across a solo show of his. It was an immersive installation that completely transformed the space: scraps of fabric altered the environment, dividing it into five moments, five different moods, Fünf verschiedene Zustände. As in many of his works, it reminded me of the games children play, those improvised tents made from sheets and
blankets. Intimate spaces. Refuge spaces. Like the Canadian tent where Margot Tenenbaum (Gwyneth Paltrow) used to sneak off to smoke.

He was also in residence in Rome at the time, hosted by the Swiss Institute. Andrea Lissoni, who had recently left the artistic directorship of Spazio Lima to work at the Tate, wrote a fine review of the Institute show for Rolling Stone. Helio Oiticica, Kurt Schwitters, Fluxus; even Animal Collective: that was Andrea’s reading then. I don’t know exactly when, but Reto later moved to London. Meanwhile I was still in Berlin, while Christiane Rekade—who would later become my wife—had just moved to Basel. Together with Simone Neuschwander she curated the program for the Oslo10 exhibition space. Hot Avangarde Hot Hot was the title of their first show, a group exhibition, and Reto was one of the invited artists.
He exhibited a series of paintings made in his youth: beautiful pictures, with a flavor of the historical avant-gardes but also somewhat naïve, made by an autodidact, as Reto still likes to call himself. Alongside those paintings was displayed the postcard invitation from the first show where he exhibited them, presented on an easel like those Impressionists used to paint en plein air, or like the Sunday painters still use today.

The intertwining of our paths has been intermittent, as life often is for those of us who share a passion and a way of seeing things. Two years ago, for Art Basel, Reto presented Zustand Hand, a large environmental installation in the Art Unlimited section. Not far from there, a row of Maneki Neko kittens represented me at the Swiss Art Awards. When, in the afternoon, I went down to attend Reto’s performance, a guitar, an amplifier, and Reto awaited me; like a thaumaturge inside his tent, for a moment he managed to transport me away from that place, from the frenzy of the fair.

That was when I began to think of Reto in the context of Spazio Lima. With Anna Abbà we thought that the same sensation could be recreated for the week of the Salone del Mobile: a time of great vitality for Milan, but also extremely hectic. Reto Pulfer’s intimate and personal approach to domestic space seemed to us a courageous and original response to a design week and to a city increasingly oriented toward an idea of luxury and exclusivity that often lapses into conformity. Moreover, the use of natural and recycled materials and the study of the complex, never-identical forms of plants and nature shift attention from consumption (including of artistic experiences) to living.

R3ticulum 5enza 8ozze confirms a rhizomatic progression, freehand interlacings: without drafts, without a plan to follow, as life, in fact, unravels before our eyes.

In the live set on Monday the 20th Reto will collaborate with Tommaso Previdi, my brother, and in the performance on Wednesday the 22nd Beatrice Volpi, my sister‑in‑law, will sing alongside him.

(Riccardo Previdi)

Reto Pulfer (* 1981 in Bern) is an artist who lives in the Germany countryside close to Berlin where he engages with plants and textile craft. His immersive installations made from repurposed bedsheets, oversized fabric, and self-sewn tents allow the audience to enter imaginary states. His practice incorporates painting, sculpture, fictional writing, botanical intervention, natural dyes, craft, braiding, soundscape, and performance. Solo exhibitions include Kunst Halle Sankt Gallen (2024); KunstHaus Potsdam (2022); Hollybush Gardens, London (2022, 2017, 2013); Spike Island, Bristol (2015); Centre d’Art Contemporain Genève (2015); Swiss Institute, New York (2013); Istituto Svizzero di Roma, Sede di Milano, Milan (2011); Fondazione Pastificio Cerere, Rome (2011); group shows: Migros Museum, Zurich (2025); Liverpool Biennale (2021); Lafayette Anticipations, Paris (2020); Museum of Modern Art, Paris (2019); Castello di Rivoli, Turin (2018); X Bienal de Nicaragua, Nicaragua (2016); Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin (2015).