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Zilvinas Kempinas
dal 29/10/2008 al 24/1/2009

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Kunsthalle Wien



 
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29/10/2008

Zilvinas Kempinas

Kunsthalle Wien, Wien

As a showcase of sensory abstractions, the exhibition presents the mystery of fleeting phenomena and invisible forces: the rotation of wind, shadow as an ornament, the play of reflected light. Minimal means are used to achieve maximum effects: lengths of unspooled videotape moving in currents of air serve as a sculptural material, transforming architecture into an optically buzzing environment or staging a hypnotic play of lines.


comunicato stampa

Curator: Gerald Matt

...suddenly a boring room became magical...

The work of Zilvinas Kempinas, who counts among the up-and-coming young artists on the international scene, possesses a fascinating lightness and poetry. His approach is characterized by the use of minimal means to achieve maximum effects. Lengths of unspooled videotape moving in currents of air serve as a sculptural material to transform architecture into an optically buzzing environment: art as a flickering, a vibrating, and a floating that enchants the eye and makes us dizzy. For this particular exhibition, Kunsthalle Wien becomes a showcase of sensory abstraction that presents the mystery of fleeting phenomena and invisible forces, locating the artwork on the verge of its own disappearance: the rotation of wind, shadow as ornament, a play of reflected light. Spaces are transformed by lengths of shiny black magnetic tape that move in currents of air. They become a hall of columns or an abstract cinema, a dance of ribbons or a sheet across the ceiling that evokes sensations of being underwater.

Fluttering black-and-white sets the museum’s white cube into motion; its architectural mass is optically dissolved, oscillating between visual ambivalences of monumentality, stasis, rhythm, and levitation. The use of material for something other than its intended purpose, a method with which Zilvinas Kempinas experiments so masterfully, leads to these unique spatio-sensory experiences. The artist describes the versatility of his material as follows: “Video tape has perfect sculptural qualities; it looks ephemeral but is actually a durable material, at once super light, micro thin and highly flexible. It’s pure black, yet has a shiny surface that reflects light and becomes even more animated when set in motion. Videotape is inexpensive, replaceable and easily recognizable by everybody as a familiar commodity, yet at the same time it has the ability to be perceived as an abstract line. It has connections with the idea of time and memory, and I like the fact that it’s a medium being pushed aside now by new technologies.

Very soon, perhaps, there will be no such thing as magnetic tape. So there is a moment of nostalgia imbedded in it already.” Zilvinas Kempinas pursues a practice of contemporary art that combines aspects of abstract and kinetic art, Op Art, Minimalism, and site-specificity into a sensory experience of aesthetic and energetic elements. With artists like Victor Vasarely and Alexander Calder he shares an interest in physical and optical laws, translating the principles according to which the human eye sees – via a form dictated by chance – into something that can be experienced physically. Both fragile and dynamic, these near-immaterial installations unfold in a moment of contemplation. They captivate with their ephemeral appearance that is in a state of constant change, throwing off the viewer’s sensory awareness.

As well as being the first presentation of his work in Austria, this exhibition at Kunsthalle Wien is the largest solo show of his work to date. It will include three major installations – White Noise (2007), Parallels (2007) and Columns (2006) – and three works based on the idea of levitation in which lengths of videotape are held in circulating suspension by mechanically generated wind.

Zilvinas Kempinas, born 1969 in Plunge, Lithuania, lives and works in New York. Solo exhibitions: Grand Café, Saint-Nazaire, France (2008); Contemporary Art Centre, Vilnius, Lithuania (2007); Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2006); P.S.1, New York (2003); Spencer Brownstone Gallery, New York (2004, 2006, 2007). Groups shows: SFMoMA (2008); Manifesta 7, Bolzano (2008). In 2007, he was awarded the Calder Prize. He will represent Lithuania at the Venice Biennial in 2009.

Catalog: The exhibition will be accompanied by the first monograph on Zilvinas Kempinas, with a foreword and an interview with the artist by Gerald Matt, texts by Daniel Marzona and Synne Genzmer, approx. 40 color and b/w illustrations, 72 pages, published in German and English versions by Verlag für moderne Kunst Nürnberg

Press conference: Thursday, October 30, 2008, 10am
Opening: Thursday, October 30, 2008, 7pm

Kunsthalle Wien
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