Severin Hallauer

Severin Hallauer works with the experiences that follow us: the places we leave, the histories we inherit, and the versions of ourselves we carry into unfamiliar rooms. Born in Basel in 1996, the Swiss multidisciplinary artist moves between installation, sculpture, performance, video, photography, and text, exploring identity, migration, belonging, and power through an autobiographical lens.

His approach is intimate and direct. He describes his work as a mirror—a space where contradictions, vulnerabilities, and uncomfortable truths become visible, leaving viewers to decide what they see. That sensitivity extends beyond his practice: his self-declared superpower is reading a room, sensing its unspoken dynamics and adjusting its emotional temperature. Among friends, he is also known for excessively elaborate speeches, though he insists they have become significantly shorter.

Hallauer graduated from Zurich University of the Arts in 2019 and received the Visual Arts Award of the Canton of Solothurn in 2021. His international exhibition history includes Kunsthalle Bern, Art Basel’s Hiddenbar, and Galería Luis Adelantado in Mexico City.

At Lola, Long Haul (I’m Only Crying On…) (2025–ongoing) brings the emotional space of air travel into the house. Each oval aluminum work begins with a photograph taken on a specific flight since Hallauer left Switzerland in 2021. Shaped like an airplane window and titled with the journey’s destinations and date, each piece marks a moment in an expanding personal record.

Digitally transformed into fluid color gradients, the photographs dissolve recognizable landscapes into mood. Borders and time zones blur; departure and arrival give way to the suspended feeling of being somewhere between homes. Their luminous surfaces hold the intimacy and anonymity of transit—the freedom of movement alongside the uncertainty of belonging.

Five flights form a chapter, each produced in an edition of five plus two artist’s proofs. With every new long-haul journey, the series continues to grow.

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