Slow Motion (E)

Slow Motion

Zilvinas Kempinas

Christoph Merian Verlag

With contributions by Zilvinas Kempinas, Kęstutis Šapoka, Karine Tissot and Roland Wetzel Edited by Museum Tinguely

Christoph Merian Verlag

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Foreword Roland Wetzel 10

The Truth Is Out There: The Early Works of Zilvinas Kempinas Kęstutis Šapoka 60

An Opening of Avenues on Other Things than Material Life Karine Tissot 106

Art as a Manifestation of Energy Roland Wetzel in Dialogue with Zilvinas Kempinas 155

Biography 158

Solo Exhibitions 158

Group Exhibitions 160

Bibliography 162

List of Works 175

Imprint

Foreword

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The art of Zilvinas Kempinas happens on the “bright side of the moon”. Gravity seems to be suspended as his palette of light penetrates and activates the materials of his installations. Yet the journey on which his works of art take us leads us to the here and now: to apparatuses of per­ cep­tion, to aggregations of energy, to drawings and inter­ ventions in space. What distinguishes his art are events that are simultaneously optical and physical phenomena and ­exhilarating aesthetic experiences.

The materials he uses are simple and everyday yet also unusual: videotape, electric fans, and FL tubes which form a symbiosis with space, rhythm, air, and light. The effect he achieves could not be more complex, embracing all our ­senses and altering our spatial orientation and our perception of our own time and movement. His installations always involve the viewer, who thus becomes an actor in a theatrical, often minimalist environment.

The Museum Tinguely has given Kempinas “carte blanche” to realize his largest solo exhibition to date. Spread over an area of 1,500 square meters and occupying four floors of the museum the exhibition features both new works and works already shown at other venues but which always ­assume a new form in interaction with a specific space.

The first work we see on entering the exhibition is Light Pillars – two large, freestanding cylinders, eight meters tall.

The pillars are formed by many concentric layers of videotape set in oscillating motion by electric fans and shrouding a brightly shining light inside each cylinder. It is an extroverted work that demands all our attention, and standing in the open hall amid Tinguely’s large machine sculptures it unfolds a powerful dynamic. But quiet contemplation is part of Kempinas’ artistic repertoire, too, as we discover in the work Parallels, which we encounter in the next section of the hall, a space covering some 200 square meters. This time the lengths of videotape are strung in parallel lines across the long side of the room. A free view of what looks like an expanse of water is afforded both from above – from the ­gallery – and from below, from the room itself.

Essentially Kempinas is a magician of the elements, an engi­ neer and an Orphic who combines the natural with the ­artificial. The contrast between facture and effect is already impressive in the early work Moon Sketch. The extremely ­simple materials – a paper tube painted black on the inside, masking tape, and the frame of a 35 mm slide – are assembled to make what looks like an instrument for stargazing, but which actually functions like a periscope, as a kind of “wall viewer”. Mounted only a few millimeters from the wall and trained on it, it appears to show a crater-strewn moon against a dark firmament in the pale light. In fact what we are looking at is a piece of wall less than eight centimeters in diam­ eter, the textured surface, whitewash, and distinctive light sit­ uation combining to create an optical illusion. Nothing is hidden, everything is visible, and yet the effect is to take us to a place that questions and challenges our customary way of perceiving things.

Preparing the exhibition together with Zilvinas Kempinas was a tremendously enjoyable experience. Our greatest debt of gratitude is therefore to the artist himself, who showed ­passion, dedication, and enormous enthusiasm for the venue with its unusual spatial situations. He has created a series of large-scale installations that chart a radical new path through the Museum Tinguely. They allow an encounter with his works and with the venue in their many permutations. Our thanks to the artist also extend to his wife, Angela Okajima-Kempinas, who acted as a central point of contact for all administrative matters and for questions arising during work on the exhibition catalogue.

At the Museum Tinguely it was our curatorial assistant, Miranda Fuchs, who ensured that things ran smoothly. Her dedication, competence, and organizational skills were crucial to the successful preparation of the exhibition and catalogue. We should therefore also like to say a big thank you to her. We thank Takafumi Shimooka for major assistance in obtaining 204 snow poles from Japan and Sankyo Chemical Industry Co., Ltd. for its generous donation of the tapes for the open air work Kakashi, which can be viewed in the park in front of the museum but which will also find an ideal home in the Schönthal Sculpture Park, thanks to the openmindedness of its founder, John Schmid.

I would also like to thank all the other members of staff at the Museum Tinguely: the conservators Jean-Marc Gaillard and Albrecht Gumlich, who together with technical director Urs Biedert managed to resolve the many conun­ drums arising in connection with the installations and who with prudence and expertise supervised the setting up of the exhibition together with Andres Pardey. I am grateful, too, to the many other people who assisted in mounting the exhibition: Gregori Bezzola, Martynas Birškys, Christina Fiechter, Vanja Galmarini, Giedrius Griška, Dinas Kavaliauskas, Christian Lindhorst, Andreas Mattle, Dominik Müller, Paul Reich, Daniel Reichmuth, and Barbara Schnetzler. I thank Daniel Boos for arranging the often ­unconventional transportation and Isabelle Beilfuss for her sensational press work.

Many people were involved in the realization of this cata­ logue, which will be published only several weeks after the exhibition opens but then with complete photographic documentation of the works. We thank Christoph Merian Verlag, Oliver Bolanz and Claus Donau for their enthusiasm and zeal in producing an exceptionally attractive book. We thank Kęstutis Šapoka for his illuminating text on Kempinas’ early years in Lithuania and Karine Tissot for her highly informative contribution on the exhibition in Basel. Thanks are due also to Doris Tranter for her competent editing; to Jurij Dobriakov, Hubertus von Gemmingen, John O’Toole, Claudia Sinnig, and Tradukas GbR for the translations; to Andreas Muster for the litho printing; and to Daniel Spehr for the photographic documentation of the exhibition.

For the catalogue design we thank the team at Raffinerie AG

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für Gestaltung, Reto Ehrbar, Anita Allemann, Daria Lötscher and Olga Veer. They have approached the artist’s œuvre in an inspired way and have realized a design concept that is both sensitive and precise.

We also extend warm thanks to the lenders and to the artist’s galleries, Yvon Lambert, Paris, Galeria Leme, São Paulo, and Galerija Vartai in Vilnius for their generous support of our exhibition project.

Roland Wetzel Director, Museum Tinguely

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Cat. 1 Zilvinas Kempinas Slow Motion, 2008 Quartz clocks with minute hands, stainless steel 290 × 138 × 5 cm Courtesy LAWING collection and Galerija Vartai, Vilnius Installation views Museum Tinguely, Basel, 2013

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Cat. 2 Zilvinas Kempinas Light Pillars, 2013 Magnetic tape, fluorescent lights, fans, iron Dimensions variable Courtesy of the artist and Galerie Yvon Lambert, Paris Installation views Museum Tinguely, Basel, 2013

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