Claudia Comte
Big Bob, his square friend and their diamond totem
Thus the artist Claudia Comte (born 1983) from the Canton of Vaud was directly commissioned by the Credit Suisse Collection to create an installation for its Forum Genève, which opened again after extensive modernization work. Mounted below the zenith of the only natural light source in the second-floor foyer, her work is a felicitous synthesis of painting and sculpture. The wooden sculptures of the title take shape against the tantalizingly precise geometry of a zigzag pattern that disappears round the wall to the left. Polished to a sheen, these three protagonists – relaxing on the steps of an angular, glossy white plinth in front of the jagged painted horizon – could be seen to be deliberating on art's beauty and freedom, which transcend by far the materials out of which it is made.