Zimoun, [KE] 3
February 8 – March 15, 2015
Reception: Sun, February 8, 4-7 PM
bitforms gallery is pleased announce [KE] 3, a series of three collaborative solo exhibitions in New York that feature kinetic sculpture by Swiss installation artist Zimoun. The project marks Zimoun’s second solo exhibit in the gallery, and his first in its new Lower East Side location.
[KE] 3 Exhibition Dates
February 5 – April 9, 2015. Simons Center for Geometry and Physics: Stony Brook Univ., Stony Brook, NY
175 prepared dc-motors, 150 filler wires, 25 cotton balls, 3 screens, 25 cardboard boxes
Artist Talk: “Primitive Complexity”, Thursday, February 5, 4:00 PM
Reception: Thursday, February 5, 5:00 – 6:30 PM
Gallery Hours: Monday – Friday, 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM
February 8 – March 15, 2015. Knockdown Center: 52-19 Flushing Ave, Maspeth, Queens, NY
250 prepared ac-motors, 325 kg roof laths, 1.8 km rope
Reception: Saturday, February 7, 2:00 – 6:00 PM
Live Performance: Saturday, February 7, 6:00 PM
Gallery Hours: Saturday and Sunday, 2:00 – 6:00 PM and by appointment
February 8 – March 15, 2015. bitforms gallery: 131 Allen Street, New York, NY
147 prepared dc-motors, 66 balls, 49 mdf panels, 1 vitrine, 0.3m3 packing paper, 33 cardboard boxes, 1 screen
Reception: Sunday, February 8, 4:00 – 7:00 PM
Gallery Hours: Wednesday – Saturday, 11:00 AM – 6:00 PM; and Sunday, 12:00 PM Noon – 6:00 PM
With an extreme sensitivity to location and rhythmic potential, Zimoun produces works that evoke control, humor, absence, and nature. Highly ordered systems of movement are derived from simple and low-tech means. His projects can easily be compared with mathematical formulas or a science experiment, as he deploys wit and a keen observation of space and sound. In this spirit, [KE] 3 is a series of exhibitions that takes artistic license in considering “KE”, a notation found in physics equations describing kinetic energy.
The three concurrent exhibitions by Zimoun are individually titled in a way that methodically reflects the physical components assembled at each location. Essentially, his titles summarize the raw materials prepared for any given project’s mechanical system. For example, the listing of materials in his title for the bitforms gallery exhibition addresses a specific set of sculptures that Zimoun will be presenting. These twelve pieces are radically reductive in format and will be making their debut in New York.
At the center of Zimoun’s practice is study of vibrational microstructures. His work explores the mechanical rhythm and flow of prepared systems. Both sonically and visually, units of pulsing activity form the basis of his compositions, whose timing and contours are determined site-specifically. Blank zones of play are constructed, and set into motion by the elements of gravity, resistance, chance, and repetition. In his sculpture and installations, scale becomes a tool of amplification or visual multiplication, as he adapts each system to a particular context.
At Knockdown Center in Queens, Zimoun is building a newly commissioned immersive environment of 250 motorized wood beams and ropes. Each unit will cyclically strike the floor, producing a sonic experience reverberating within a 10,000 square foot atrium space with 40-foot ceilings. Unveiling on Saturday February 7th, the installation marks Zimoun’s largest site-specific project in the US to date. On opening night, Zimoun will also present a rare live performance that will inaugurate a new series of cross-disciplinary programming at Knockdown Center responding to its unique architecture and history.
Exhibited widely in Europe, Zimoun is best known for his construction of sonic sculptures, or ‘architecturally-minded platforms of sound’. Recently interviewed by “Space” magazine in Korea, Zimoun explained his thinking on installation art as follows: What I call ‘sound architecture’ signifies a space of entrance, but also a sound composition that functions more like an organism, something that is not changing into something else over time, but rather is full of variations in its details, and potent in its sonic possibilities. It’s not about a beginning or end; it could even be endless. It’s not narrative. It’s not going somewhere, and not coming from anywhere – even if it is continuously changing in its microstructures. It is more about creating a situation and focusing on the vibrations happening at the current moment. It’s about creating a simple system, which then gains dynamism, becoming richer in its behavior. So in that sense, time is informing these ‘sonic architectures’ in a very different way than that of conventional musical composition.
Furthering the logically rooted considerations of his practice, the Simons Center for Geometry and Physics is featuring Zimoun’s work in an exhibition at Stony Brook University in Long Island. On view will be a selection of videos, and two sculptures entitled “175 prepared dc-motors, filler wire 1.0mm” and “25 prepared dc-motors, cotton balls, cardboard boxes 50x50x50cm”. The Simons Center is also hosting an artist talk on February 5 in conjunction with the exhibit.
A fully illustrated exhibition guide will be available February 8 at the gallery and online. The display is also accompanied by two monographs recently published in Europe. Available at the front desk, these publications highlight Zimoun’s 2014 solo exhibition at the Museo d’Art, Lugano, and his 2013 site-specific installation for a toluene tank in Dottikon, Switzerland.
All three exhibitions are generously supported by the Consulate General of Switzerland in NY, Swiss Arts Council; Pro Helvetia; Swissnex Boston; Kultur Stadt Bern and Swisslos Kultur Kanton Bern.
2015 Forthcoming and concurrent projects with Zimoun
February 14 – March 29: Nuella Dies Sine Linea, a group exhibition at the Kunsthaus, Zofingen, Switzerland
March 6-26: Zimoun, a solo exhibition at Cabane B, Bern, Switzerland
March 13 – Oct 4: Primitive Komplexität, a solo exhibition at the Klangruam Krems-Kapitelsaal, Minoritenkirche, Krems, Austria
March 20-29: STRP Biennale, a group exhibition at Klokgebouw, Eindhoven, The Netherlands
April – May: site-specific installations for a submarine base in Bordeaux, France
May 21 – July 26: Klangarchitektur, a solo exhibition at the Klangraum Krems-Kapitelsaal, Minoritenkirche, Krems, Austria
June 19 – September 27: group exhibition at 21_21 Design Sight Museum, Tokyo, Japan
Biography
Zimoun (b. 1977, Bern, Switzerland) is an internationally acclaimed installation artist. His work has been exhibited and performed on five continents, and has been recognized with awards from Bundesamt für Kultur/BAK, the Aeschlimann Corti Award, Prix Ars Electronica, and the Kiefer Hablitzel Preis from the Swiss Art Awards. Past exhibitions of his work have included the National Art Museum of China, Beijing; Vasarely Fondation, Aix-en-Provence; Haus für elektronische Künste, Basel; Nam June Paik Art Museum, Korea; Ringling Museum of Art, Florida; Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts, Taipei; Seoul Museum of Art, Korea; Museum of Contemporary Art, Liechtenstein; Musée des Beaux-Arts, Rennes; Museum Les Champs Libres, Rennes; Harnett Museum of Art, Richmond; Kunsthalle Bern; Museum of Fine Arts, Bern; bitforms gallery, New York; Galerie Denise René, Paris; Oboro Gallery, Montreal; National Museum of Contemporary Art (MNAC), Bucharest; Borusan Contemporary, Istanbul; Beall Art Center, Los Angeles; List Art Center, Brown University, Providence; CUNY Graduate Center, New York; Kunstverein, Mannheim; Metropolitan Arts Center, Belfast; Museum of Contemporary Art (MSUM), Ljubljana; Art Basel, Switzerland; and the Museo d’Art, Lugano; among others.
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