Dieter Meier (*1945)
Dieter Meier is a pioneer of performance and conceptual art in Switzerland. He began his career with street performances, later expanding into experimental films, photography, and music. Together with Boris Blank, he founded the electronic music group YELLO over four decades ago.
One of Dieter Meier’s most famous works is “Two Words,” realized in New York in 1971. Meier bought the words “yes” or “no” from passersby, which they had to say into a microphone. For this, he paid them one dollar and gave them a certificate of their “sale.”
The passersby often weren’t quite sure what they were actually saying—whether it was “yes” or “no.”
Ironically, the payment served as a kind of bait, luring the passersby, who essentially sold their beliefs for it.
“Jumps” is one of Dieter Meier’s photographic series in which the 29-year-old dandy presents himself with elegance and ease, floating in the air with his hands in his pockets, momentarily escaping the earth’s gravity.
After 1976, the artist withdrew from everything he called the art race. He no longer wanted to submit to the judgment of any artistic pop scene because the things he did felt existentially close to him.
In the late ’70s, he began collaborating with his musical partner Boris Blank, forming the band Yello. Known for its unmistakable techno style and spoken-sung storytelling, Yello created hits like “Lovesong,” Buffon, 2014, infused with self-irony.
In an undogmatic and unpretentious way, Meier showcases his masterful artistic dilettantism by singing, dancing, and loving us.
Today, Dieter Meier is a successful entrepreneur, owning several restaurants in Zurich, Frankfurt, and Berlin, an organic farm in Argentina for wine production and cattle breeding, and a hazelnut plantation in Argentina. He recently opened a chocolate shop in Zurich.