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CLEARINGS - a project by Michel Comte & Yuichi Kodai

Location:
Wasserkirche, Limmatquai 31, 8001 Zürich

13 Decem­ber 2025 – 4 Janu­ary 2026, daily except Monday, 2 – 5 pm (closed 24 / 25 Decem­ber)

In Zurich’s Was­ser­kir­che, inter­na­tio­nally renow­ned mul­ti­me­dia artist Michel Comte, in col­la­bo­ra­tion with Japa­nese archi­tect Yuichi Kodai, pres­ents the instal­la­tion «CLEA­RINGS». The inter­ven­tion is the 24th pro­ject within the multi-year ART FLOW exhi­bi­tion.

In autumn 2024, Comte rea­li­sed a site-spe­ci­fic inter­ven­tion for ART FLOW in the forest of Die­ti­kon. Tog­e­ther with Kodai, he explo­red the cycles of growth, decay and rene­wal within the wood­land. The ten-part artis­tic pro­ject con­sists of fallen trees that the artist wrap­ped in thin copper foil. These trees (known as dead­wood) play a cen­tral role in the forest eco­sys­tem, ser­ving as habi­tats for num­e­rous insects and con­tri­bu­ting signi­fi­cantly to soil nut­ri­ents. The title CLEA­RINGS points to both ​“ope­ning” and ​“cla­ri­fi­ca­tion” and invi­tes a heigh­tened awa­re­ness of cli­mate change and our rela­ti­onship with nature.

The inter­ven­tion will remain on view in the Röh­ren­moos forest in Die­ti­kon until the end of 2025 and can be explo­red along a ten-sta­tion trail. From 12 Decem­ber, a cen­tral ele­ment — a twelve-metre-long, copper-wrap­ped tree trunk — will be trans­por­ted to the Was­ser­kir­che, where it will be pre­sen­ted in a new con­text. Comte draws a link to the Japa­nese con­cept of Yoris­hiro: clea­rings unders­tood as places of quietude and sacred pre­sence. Visi­tors are invi­ted to sense the pulse of the work and engage with the subtle ener­gies of the space.

Michel Comte (born 1954 in Zurich) is a mul­ti­me­dia artist and one of the most influ­en­tial fashion and por­trait pho­to­graph­ers of his gene­ra­tion. Along­side his pho­to­gra­phic career, he devo­ted hims­elf to huma­ni­ta­rian work — inclu­ding for the Inter­na­tio­nal Red Cross — and foun­ded the Michel Comte Water Foun­da­tion. Since the 2010s, he has incre­asingly focu­sed on eco­lo­gi­cal themes. CLEA­RINGS is his first site-spe­ci­fic inter­ven­tion in public space in Switz­er­land.

Yuichi Kodai (born 1978 in Kyoto) works at the inter­sec­tion of archi­tec­ture, land­scape and art. His career began in Kyoto and con­ti­nues in Zurich today. With the Zen medi­ta­tion pavi­lion KOHTEI, deve­lo­ped with artist Kohei Nawa at Studio SAND­WICH, he crea­ted a work that dis­sol­ves the boun­da­ries bet­ween archi­tec­ture and art. Tog­e­ther with Michel Comte, he rea­li­sed CLEA­RINGS as his first site-spe­ci­fic pro­ject in the Die­ti­kon forest — now expan­ded through its pre­sen­ta­tion in the Was­ser­kir­che.

📄 All details on the exhi­bi­tion, finis­sage and pro­gramme available [down­load]

This pro­ject is a col­la­bo­ra­tion bet­ween ART FLOW and the Was­ser­kir­che Zurich. Our spe­cial thanks go to Michel Comte, Yuichi Kodai, Ayako Yoshida, and the Holz­kor­po­ra­tion Die­ti­kon as well as Huber Kran­trans­porte for their valuable col­la­bo­ra­tion and sup­port of the pro­ject CLEA­RINGS.