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Just in time for another peak of the pandemic, we are back with the eternal grid.

true grid irl is a group show with contributions of 83 artists from Switzerland and abroad and the physical sister of the virtual exhibition True Grid, which we published on Instagram during the lockdown in spring. We are happy that all 83 artists who sent us their work for True Grid are also part of true grid irl.

with (in order of initial appearance):
Josse Bailly, In Jung, Marco Luedi, Kevin Aeschbacher, Alina Kopytsa, Marilou Bal, Adrian Schär, 0.0.01.0.0, Basile Dinbergs, Benedikt Stäubli, Simon Risi, Valentina Pini, Yamu Wang, Clifford E. Bruckmann, Hannes Zulauf, Angela Baumgartner, Tim Wandelt, Vinzenz Meyner, Denis Twerenbold, Barbara Signer, Dominic Michel, Johanna Kotlaris, Philipp Schwalb, Ardil Yalinkiliç, Asia Dellanoce Naar, Bertold Stallmach, Michael Bodenmann, Flavia Senn, Elza Sile, Effi & Amir, Thomas Moor, Andreas Waldmeier, Brigham Baker, Lea Meier, Pascal Sidler, Jonas Etter, Boris Siebs, {F_x Office}, Cassidy Toner, Julian Zehnder, Fhunyue Gao, Silvan Hillmann, Vela Arbutina, Vipera&Haas, Bernhard Hegglin, Claudia Kübler, Jiajia Zhang, Maximilian Kirmse, Michaël Reinhold, Magdalena Baranya, Lucas Herzig, Anne Fellner, Michael Etzensperger, Maya Lama, Nico Sebastian Meyer, Philipp König, David Knuckey, Sarah Jacky, Jan Hofer, Fid. Fischer, Roman Selim Khereddine, Martina Mächler, Jürgen Baumann, Roberts John-Michelle Thick, Philip Ullrich, Elina Meksa, Cathrin Jarema, André Simonow, Anna Herms, Anne-Laure Franchette, Florian Dombois, Angi Nend, Mäschi, Liga Spunde, Janes Haid-Schmallenberg, Jeronim Horvat, Jonathan Steiger, Annija Grosa, Raphael Stucky, Ruven Stettler, Julia Znoj, Nicolas Rothenbühler, Nusser Glazova

Thank you for entrusting us with the strategic resource-oriented conception of „true grid irl“. Please find below a summary of the solutions developed according to the agreed extent.

Project Requirements
Spatial arrangement of 83 artworks according to the following criteria:
- Use of given units for the construction of a grid structure (approx. 500 grid units)
- Best possible presentation of the individual works, highlighting both their individuality as well as embeddedness into the structure
- Adherence to the spatial capacities (approx. 200 square meters)
- Unique selling point: „Imagination potential”

Content and Objectives:
The intent of the project is to negotiate and reflect the question of structures and their effect on their individual parts, and vice versa. Furthermore, the exhibition project „true grid irl“ shall enable and suggest reflection on the virtual pre-project „True Grid“.

Initial Situation
The exhibition project at hand has been preceded by the virtual exhibition “True Grid” ealier this year, which featured the same 83 artists and consisted of the documentation and daily publication of their works on the digital platform Instagram.
It has been agreed with the client to use the analysis and evaluation of said pre-project as a basis for the conception of the upcoming exhibition „true grid irl“.
A differentiated ROI-analysis of the pre-project is unfortunately no longer feasible at this point in time, since neither working hours in general nor the time spent on the documentation of individual artworks were recorded during the execution of the project. According to the client, the time spent on the documentation of an individual artwork varied between 10 minutes and 4 hours, whereby the quality of the result did not necessarily correlate with the amount of time spent.

Analysis
For a factual analysis of the problem, the following parameters are available:
- Number of documented works: 83
- Number of documents to be generated per work: 2 (1 image, 1 video)
- Number of de facto generated documents: 4300 images and videos
- Total invested time: approx. 3 working weeks of 8h/day
- Measurable yield after 12 weeks: approx. 300 followers on Instagram

A rough calculation results in an average of 52 generated documents per artistic work, of which 50 are rejects. The time spent per documented work averages about 1.5 hours, whereby the result consists of an image and a video of less than one minute in duration. Assuming a studio setting and the fact that the videos were not edited, a maximum of 30 minutes spent per documented work is expected based on comparable projects in the field of advertising and image film.
For each documented work, an average surplus of 60 minutes of time and 50 reject documents were generated. With 83 artworks, this adds up to a time expenditure of the equivalent of 2 working weeks and a total of 4134 rejected documents.
Considering the project output (300 followers on the digital platform Instagram), it should be noted that the average organization with comparable resources in the category „Off-Space Zurich“ achieves a follower base of at least the same size significantly faster and with simpler measures (e.g. use of the „Follow“ function on Instagram). For further information on this, we warmly recommend our digital strategy guide.

Possible Solutions
Based on the preceding analysis, the following four scenarios were discussed with the client:
a) Organic approach (with each extension, the overall structure is renegotiated)
b) Exemplary approach (cluster solution)
c) Documentary approach
d) Formal approach

Approach a) was dismissed with reference to the analysis of the pre-project and approach b) was rejected by the client as too pedagogical, we thus recommend a synthesis of c) and d).

Proposal
For the placement of the 83 artworks, it is recommended to use a total of 415 grid units, which are placed in identical, equally distributed stacks in the room. This ensures maximum visibility of each work while avoiding to create hierarchies.
The grid units are supplemented by existing video material. According to user testing, the combination of the structure and the documentary video material create the imaginary potential desired by the client. The proposed solution is characterized by modularity and, in principle, unlimited scalability. It combines equal opportunities, effective and economical use of existing resources with theoretically unlimited potential for growth and – according to the client‘s requirements – „imagination potential“.

We thank you for the placed order and hope to have fulfilled it to your maximum satisfaction. I would like to take this opportunity to supply your names for the purpose of invoicing.

H. Rodham
Caiman Consulting

With max. support from the Stanley Thomas Johnson foundation and Nestlé Fondation pour l'Art.