The Dynamic Vibrancy of Vivian Suter’s Paintings

### Vivian Suter: A Journey in Artistic Collaboration with Nature

**LISBON** — Vivian Suter is a prolific artist whose life and work are reflections of an immersive and intertwined relationship with the natural environment. Her artistic narrative, particularly spotlighted in her latest exhibition, *Disco* at the Museum of Art, Architecture, and Technology (MAAT) in Lisbon, captures the profound influence of her surroundings and her unconventional approach to the creative process.

#### The Road to Panajachel

Born and brought up in Switzerland, Suter embarked on a solo journey to explore the archaeological grandeur of Mesoamerica. This exploration brought her to the small Guatemalan town of Panajachel on the shores of the picturesque Lake Atitlan. Enchanted by the town’s serenity and landscape, Suter made the life-altering decision to stay, leaving behind both Europe and the mainstream art world. Here, on a former coffee plantation, she created her own sanctuary dedicated to her distinctive, experimental art practice.

Suter’s story speaks of more than just geographical relocation — it signifies a deeper engagement with her environment, one that would come to shape her work in extraordinary ways. While Suter distanced herself from the fluctuating prestige of the Swiss art market, her connection to it has remained, albeit detached and minimal. The essence of her journey, however, as highlighted in *Disco*, is her complete dedication to integrating her work with the diverse and unrestrained ecologies that surround her.

#### Working in Harmony with Nature

Unlike most studio artists who prefer controlled environments, Suter’s artistic process is deeply ingrained in the unpredictable and often turbulent forces of Mother Nature. She paints in her garden studio, surrounded by lush vegetation, with her canvases exposed to the elements. Natural forces interact with her paints — wind scattering leaves, her dogs leaving muddy paw prints, and rain embedding flecks of earth into her creations. These environmental interventions are never erased or corrected; instead, they are embraced as integral parts of her finished works, a testament to collaboration between artist and ecology.

In *Disco* at MAAT, Suter presents over 500 paintings created in the past decade. The installation evokes the richness of forest vegetation, with canvases covering walls from floor to ceiling, creating an immersive experience where the boundaries between artwork and environment blur. Her works hang from the ceiling and rest on the floor, positioned in such ways that viewers must look at them from different angles, much like navigating a dense forest.

#### Breaking Hierarchies in Art

Suter’s artistic philosophy challenges conventional hierarchies embedded in the world of painting. She avoids rigid, systematic approaches to installation and refuses to adhere to the usual norms of framing and presentation. Some of her paintings appear upside down, sideways, or back to front, and the artist remains driven by instinct during their placement. Drip marks often zigzag upwards in defiance of traditional gravity in painting, emphasizing spontaneity and deconstruction of form.

Moreover, Suter avoids signing, dating, or titling her work. This absence of formal identification adds to the enigmatic nature of her canvases, allowing viewers to make their own interpretations. Is that a child or a seed within the abstract forms? Could those concentric circles represent ripples on a lake? Like nature, her paintings are fluid, evolving in interpretation with each viewing.

#### A Meditation on Ecological Sensitivity

At its heart, Suter’s abstract language revolves around ecological sensitivity. Her work captures the interdependence between human and non-human entities, underscoring the inseparable relationship between herself, her surroundings, and the organic traces present in her paintings. Much like ecosystems that consist of visible and invisible networks of interaction, Suter’s work exists as collaborative interventions with her environment, with traces of rain, mud, foliage, or storm damage preserved as unique memories on her canvases.

For instance, one of the exhibition’s pieces bears marks from a storm that flooded her storeroom, embedding scars of the disaster into the artwork. By allowing such inadvertent elements to remain, Suter rejects the idea of the artist as an omnipotent creator, instead adopting a philosophy that sees art as a collaborative balance of intention and serendipity.

#### The *Disco* Installation: Art as Ecosystem

The setting at MAAT mirrors the jungle-like environment where Suter lives and works. Entire walls are carpeted with paintings, evoking the dense, layered textures of a rainforest. Visitors frequently find their sightlines obstructed, mirroring how one’s view in nature is continually interrupted and reframed by surrounding trees and undergrowth. This complex visual experience adds layers of meaning to Suter’s works, reinforcing the idea that art, much like nature, has no singular perspective or narrative.

The exhibition’s title, *Disco*, comes from Suter’s youngest dog, underscoring how all aspects of her life — even interspecies