Art

‘The objects you see are things you might know from childhood or have had in your home. It gives it a comfortable atmosphere, inviting you to stay and lose track of time’—Oddur Roth

First conceived by Dieter Roth in the late 1970s, the bar is a dynamic and changing installation, and is a continuing element in the Roths’ cross-generational practice.

The shared history of the Roth Bars and Hauser & Wirth continues in celebration of ten years of Hauser & Wirth Somerset in 2024. Artist Oddur Roth, grandson of the late German-born Swiss artist Dieter Roth, lived and worked in Bruton from January to March 2024, and together with his team—Einar Roth, Bjarni Grímsson, Thrandur Gíslason Roth, Gudmundur Oddur Magnusson and Sigrun Holmgeirsdottir—he created Roth Bar within the Threshing Barn at Hauser & Wirth Somerset.

Like its first iteration in Somerset in 2014, Roth Bar is composed of salvaged materials and locally-sourced objects from reclamation yards in the surrounding area. The work incorporates monitors showing videos of previous bars, musical instruments and carpentry scraps. It is a place where art becomes infused with life, bringing into question the relationship between its function and its status as an artwork.

Next to Roth Bar is a second interactive installation conceived as a functional Revolving Door by Björn and Oddur Roth, inspired by the work Allerweltsbild Dieter Roth created between 1982 and 1985 together with Björn Roth, Dominik Steiger, Ómar Stefánsson and André Thomkins. It remains today in the Brasserie in the central station Bahnhof Basel SBB in Basel, Switzerland.

10 years earlier in 2014, Björn and Oddur Roth were one of our first artists-in-residence in Somerset when they worked on creating the bar that formed an integral part of the gallery’s on-site restaurant—the precursor to this artwork.