Nicolas Sassoon, Prophets - Tanaga, 2023
EVOLVING KINETICS. Transformations of Kinetic Art in the Post-Digital Age
With works by: Kim Asendorf (DE), Banz & Bowinkel (DE), Armin Keplinger (DE), Rosa Menkmann (NL), Nicolas Sassoon (FR), Studio Above&Below (Daria Jelonek and Perry-James Sugden) (UK), Robert Seidel (DE)
Curated by: Peggy Schoenegge (peer to space)
Opening: March 10, 2023, 7 pm
Duration: March 10 – May 21, 2023
At: Kunstmuseum Gelsenkirchen
With digital media such as smartphones, tablets, or VR glasses, new possibilities of artistic practice and art experience arise. The digital work is subject to its own technical rules – independent of physical laws such as gravity. This leads to a new frame for art.
The artists in the exhibition investigate, expand, and change the (traditional) form of kinetic art by incorporating the digital. The works float freely in space, create an immersive environment, and break the rigid structures of the physical site. The focus is on the moment of movement. In the interrelation between work and technology, new dimensions of dynamics open up and are developed in a new way. Kim Asendorf, Rosa Menkman and Armin Keplinger create immersive spaces, which they digitally extend and are related to Op-Art. Their installations overcome the spatial limitations of the museum and thereby create a new form of reality. Banz & Bowinkel, on the other hand, present minimalist sculptures that, as virtual augmentations, make it possible to experience an immediate interrelationship between the digital and analog worlds. In a similar vein, Robert Seidel and Studio Above&Below place their immaterial works in the physical space, allowing a new perspective on kinetic sculpture. In contrast, Nicolas Sassoons's works dynamize the solid form of various volcanic blocks. He juxtaposes the organic material with the technological matter, creating an abstract moment of movement.
What unites all the works in the exhibition is the elemental role of the viewer in the process of the work’s emergence. Without the visitor, the kinetic moment – and thus the work itself – cannot unfold. Thus, the visitors are invited and called upon to put on the VR glasses, take the tablets in their hands, and actively enter the individual rooms in order to discover the different digital worlds. EVOLVING KINETICS creates an experiential space of contemporary, digital art that enters into a dialogue with the collection of Kunstmuseum Gelsenkirchen.
Full exhibition text and more information about each artwork you will find here.
Accompanying Program:
Curator’s tour: April 14, 2023
Further events of the accompanying program will be announced on the website of Kunstmuseum Gelsenkirchen.
