Yvonne Am See 2021 May 2026

Essay: Yvonne am See (2021)

"Yvonne am See" (2021) is a contemporary German-language short film that centers on quiet domestic tensions and the small, telling ruptures in ordinary relationships. Set largely by a lakeside retreat, the film uses atmosphere, restrained performances, and visual minimalism to explore grief, memory, and the ways people avoid uncomfortable truths.

• Visual approach: Static compositions, long takes, and careful framing that foreground the lake and domestic spaces as emotional landscapes. Natural light and muted color palettes reinforce the elegiac mood.
• Sound design: Subtle—ambient lakeside sounds, domestic noises, and pauses in dialogue deepen the sense of presence and unsettlement.
• Acting: Understated, with small physical actions (a cigarette, a cup of coffee, a glance) carrying narrative weight.

• "The Encaustic Revival: Swiss Artists of the 2020s" – Zurich University Press, 2022.
• Interview: Yvonne Am See on Silence and Sediment – SRF Kultur, October 15, 2021.
• Auction Analysis: Post-Pandemic Market Surges – Artprice.com, 2022 Report.

Ecological Relationships: Insights into inter-species dynamics, such as the relationship between giraffes and zebras, where giraffes spot distance threats while zebras provide close-range security. yvonne am see 2021

The Exhibition: "Stille Wasser" (March – June 2021)

The keyword search often leads to the press release for this show. Held at a converted boathouse on the Swiss Alps' edge, the exhibition was unusual for its sensory integration. Visitors didn't just see the paintings; they heard field recordings of water pressure (recorded 50 meters below the lake’s surface) piped into the gallery. Essay: Yvonne am See (2021) "Yvonne am See"

Perhaps the deepest tension was temporal. Am See’s 2021 work was intensely retrospective, oriented toward the 1990s and early 2000s—the era of her childhood and her mother’s middle age. But what about the present? By turning memory into her medium, did she forfeit the ability to speak to current crises? The question would haunt her subsequent work, as we shall briefly see. "The Encaustic Revival: Swiss Artists of the 2020s"

• Protagonists: Two principal figures whose shared history is implied rather than spelled out. Their interactions reveal both care and distance.
• Emotional arc: Instead of dramatic revelation, the film charts incremental shifts — moments of recognition, small acts of tenderness, and a persistent inability (or refusal) to fully articulate pain.
• Secondary details: Props and setting (photographs, clothing, the lakeshore) function as memory triggers and symbolic signposts.

Am See herself acknowledged these limits in a December 2021 interview with Frieze. “I don’t want to claim that every broken file is a poem,” she said. “Some are just broken. But I also think we are too quick to call things broken. The work of 2021 taught me that a scratched negative is still a photograph—it just shows different things.”

Wenn wir auf das Jahr 2021 zurückblicken, gibt es Lieder, die wie ein Zeitgeber fungierten. "Yvonne am See" von Wolfgang Petry war so ein Titel. Ursprünglich ein Song über Liebeskummer im kalten Eis, wurde er 2021 für viele von uns zur Hymne der Zuversicht. In einem Jahr, in dem wir oft auf Distanz gehen mussten, verband uns die Schlagermusik. Ob auf dem Balkon oder im Auto – die Melodie war allgegenwärtig und erinnerte uns daran, dass nach jedem Eis und Schnee auch wieder die Sonne kommt.