Big Questions, Small Questions: Peter Fischli

In this Artist Talk - part of the ongoing series co-presented by Fondation Beyeler and UBS - the artist Peter Fischli and the curator, critic and art historian Bice Curiger reflect on the productive tension between the monumental and the everyday, the profound and the seemingly insignificant.

Drawing on works spanning more than four decades, Peter Fischli and Bice Curiger trace the evolution of an artistic practice shaped by curiosity, observation and a fascination with the contradictions of everyday life. Beginning with the celebrated collaboration of Fischli and David Weiss, the conversation revisits key projects, such as ‘Suddenly This Overview’ (1981 - 2012) and ‘How to Work Better’ (1991), that transformed ordinary objects and fleeting thoughts into enduring reflections on how we see the world. It then turns to Fischli’s more recent work following Weiss’s death, exploring how longstanding questions continue to unfold through new forms and perspectives. Recorded at Fondazione Prada in Milan, Big Questions, Small Questions offers a thoughtful and often humorous journey through an oeuvre that moves effortlessly between the profound and the familiar, the cosmic and the commonplace.