Part of a series that received its U.S. debut in a solo exhibition at the Ringling Museum of Art this Fall, the installation emphasizes the grid as a method of visual organization. Precariously balanced rows of cardboard boxes form an architectural space containing a rumbling din produced by mechanical motors humming in unison.

Pulsing rhythmically, each unit in the system reverberates with its own sense of purpose and timing. Temporal microstructures emerge and shift, made visible by collective behavior. With minimalist and low-tech means, Zimoun constructs a blank zone of play utilizing repetition and the physical pressure of vibration.

As an author, Zimoun uses scale and tools of amplification to transform our associations with commonplace industrial objects. Tuned into kinetic and acoustic detail, his obsessive displays of collected materials unlock emotional potential in otherwise banal and chaotic gestures. In his work static volume permeates a space, yielding reductive clocklike operas of the everyday.

For the duration of the show, the gallery’s project room on the 6th floor will also feature four mechanical works by the artist and a video.

ZIMOUN
VOLUME
Feb 2 -  Mar 10, 2012
Reception: Thur, Feb 2, 6:00 – 8:30 PM

bitforms gallery nyc
529 West 20th Street
(between 10th and 11th)
2nd Floor
New York, NY 10011
ph. 212 366 6939
fx. 212 366 6959
Open Tuesday – Saturday, 11AM – 6PM
info[at]bitforms[dot]com

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bitforms.com/zimoun.html

Moderna Museet presents an exhibition featuring completely new works by Eija-Liisa Ahtila, one of the most internationally recognised Nordic contemporary artists. Ahtila has been a constant pioneer in the development of multi-media art ever since her video and performance breakthrough in the 1990s.

Eija-Liisa Ahtila is a masterly and fascinating story-teller in moving images. Her filmic installations challenge the boundaries of our identities and overturn our perceptions of time and space. Her occasionally super-realistic scenarios are based on everyday human experiences and relationships. With the utmost earnestness and personal humour, her works focus on our greatest and most urgent issues. What makes us human? Can absolutely everything be forgiven? Is my experience all that counts?

Ahtila’s process begins as writing, and she also bases her work on artistic models, such as texts by Arthur Rimbaud and Frantz Fanon in the installation Var är var? (Where is Where?, 2008), or renaissance painting in Marie bebådelse (The Annunciation, 2010). In the last-mentioned work, which forms the core of this exhibition, Ahtila enacts postcolonial and biopolitical issues without departing from the personal level.

She often alludes to given, familiar forms, including commercials or documentaries, undermining the viewer’s position as a detached spectator. Her works explore the potential of the film medium, weaving an intricate web of references – between film and theatre, painting and poetry, fiction and documentary.

Ahtila’s works are often produced as both installations and feature films, and are regularly shown at international film festivals. Eija-Liisa Ahtila was a member of the feature film jury at the latest Venice Film Festival.

Eija-Liisa Ahtila
Parallel Worlds
Skeppsholmen, Stockholm
11 February 2012 – 6 May 2012

Moderna Museet
Box 16382
SE-103 27 Stockholm
Sweden

+46 8 5195 5289
info[at]modernamuseet[dot]se
modernamuseet.se

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