2001

Wesley Willis (Chicago, 1963 – 2003) began his artistic career singing on the street, accompanied by his Technics KN 2000 keyboard. He was soon playing opening slots for local bands, and later recording songs as an homage to these performances (i.e. "Urge Overkill", "Swervedriver", "Foo Fighters", "The Frogs"). In 1989, Willis was diagnosed as schizophrenic; he explains that writing, performing, and recording help quiet the voices in his head. Most of his exposure came as an internet phenomenon during the early days of peer-to-peer file sharing.

The Exhibition WW vs. GRRRR was first realized in St. Gallen (Switzerland) and then went to s'Hertogenbosch (Holland) and Giza (Egypt). It combines the first retrospective of Willis’s oeuvre with an extensive selection of work by the young Swiss artist Ingo Giezendanner. 2001 is edited by Urs Lehni