Dieter Meier (*1945)
Dieter Meier is a pioneer of performance and concept Art in Switzerland. He began his career with street performances, then branched out into experimental films, photography and music. Last but not least, along with Boris Blank, he formed the electronic music group YELLO four decades ago.
One of the best-known works from Dieter Meier is Two Words, realized in New York (1971). From passers-by he bought the words Yes or No, which they had to utter into a microphone. He paid them one dollar of which a certificate was included. t
The passers-by weren’t really clear about what they were saying weather it was yes or no.
Ironically the payment was a sort of bait by which they were seduced and for which they sold their conviction.
Dieter Meier. Jumps, 1974. Photography
Jumps is one of Dieter Meier’s serial photographic works in which the 29-year-old dandy, stages himself with elegance and lightness, hanging in the air with his hands in his trousers pockets, escaping the gravity of the earth for a fleeting moment.
After 1976, the artist withdrew from everything he calls artistic racing. He no longer wanted to surrender to judgments of any art popes, because the things he did were existentially close to him.
By the end of the 70ies he began to join up with his musical partner Boris Blank, forming their band Yello. Electric music known for his unmistakably techno style, speech-singing. Inside the hut you will find the “Lovesong” Buffoon, 2014, with quite a lot of self-irony.
He shows us in an undogmatic and unpretentious way his superior artistic dilettantism in singing and dancing and loving us.
Today Dieter Meier is a successful entrepreneur who runs several restaurants in Zurich, Frankfurt and Berlin, an organic farm in Argentina producing wine and cattle and he grows nuts in Argentina. Recently he has opened a chocolaterie in Zurich.