Dieter Meier, born in 1945 in Zurich, is one of Switzerland’s most versatile artistic personalities. After studying law, he turned early to conceptual art, performance and music. He gained international attention through his participation in documenta 5 in Kassel (1972), where his conceptual works and performances established him as one of the defining figures of European conceptual art. In 1976, the Kunsthaus Zurich hosted an exhibition of works by Dieter Meier entitled Works 1974–1976. In the 1980s Meier achieved worldwide fame as the singer and lyricist of the duo Yello. Alongside his musical career, he developed an independent visual practice that encompasses photography, film, text and object-based art. His works move between irony and precision, play and structure, and reflect on questions of identity, time and staging in complex and poetic ways. Today, Dieter Meier lives and works in Zurich.
Fifty-five years ago, Meier announced his conceptual art performance Gehen (Walking) in the Tages-Anzeiger. On July 13, 1970, he walked a precisely measured distance of twenty meters at Zurich’s Bellevue Square over the course of one hour. In 2025, he returns to the immediate vicinity of that site with a new exhibition at Tobias Mueller Modern Art on Waldmannstrasse.
At the heart of this exhibition are drawings and photographs depicting Meier’s small clay figures. Both the drawings and the plasticine sculptures emerge spontaneously, created within seconds and without preconceived intention. Only when a figure captures Meier’s attention – when he perceives a particular character within it – does he engage in a dialogue with it, assigning it a statement or a name. He refers to this process as Accidental Birth.
The photographs shown in the exhibition are not documentary reproductions but visual extensions of these sculptural gestures. Through the lens, Meier transforms the fleeting materiality of the clay into a narrative and metaphorical space. The photographic art prolongs the moment of creation: what was transient becomes image, what was accidental turns into meaning. In this dialogue between modeling and seeing, Meier explores the relationship between form, time and perception – an ongoing reflection that runs throughout his practice. This exploration continues in his drawings, spontaneous works created in real time. Each drawing is produced without correction, capturing the immediacy of gesture and decision. The lines – raw, sketch-like and yet precise – record not only the movement of the hand but also the acceptance of imperfection and risk, an attitude that connects directly to the spirit of his sculptural and photographic work.
Meier’s artistic language can be conceived as an open system, a continual attempt to challenge the boundaries between reality and representation. The exhibited works reveal Meier as a precise observer who, with subtle humor and conceptual rigor, examines the mechanisms of perception and self-image. Rather than functioning as classical documents, these works are experimental arrangements: situations in which the artist embeds himself directly within the act of seeing. Meier often operates simultaneously as author, subject and object of his own images – a play of roles and attributions that is as analytical as it is poetic.
Meier’s works have been shown in numerous renowned institutions, including major solo exhibitions at the Aargauer Kunsthaus in Aarau (2013), the Falckenberg Collection/Deichtorhallen Hamburg (2011, in cooperation with the ZKM Karlsruhe) and the Kunsthaus Zurich (1976). Further presentations have taken place at the Museum Haus Konstruktiv in Zurich and the Museum für Gegenwartskunst Siegen. His works are represented in major public collections, including the Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst in Zurich, the Aargauer Kunsthaus, the Lenbachhaus Munich and the Falckenberg Collection in Hamburg.