Press Release
Zürich, 23 March 2006
Kunsthaus Zürich shows ‘The Expanded Eye’
From 16 June until 3 September 2006 Kunsthaus Zürich is showing ‘The
Expanded Eye’, an exhibition looking at the ever-widening horizons
of the
human eye in the age of its physiologically and technologically
extended
faculties. The exhibition will comprise around 120 kinetic objects,
paintings, film- and video installations from the 1940s to the present
day. Alongside works by the Op Artist Bridget Riley, the Surrealist
Salvador Dalí and the video artist Nam June Paik, there will also
be newer
works by artists such as Pierre Huyghe and Sam Taylor-Wood.
‘The Expanded Eye’ directs the viewer’s gaze to the adventurous,
exploratory side of art. Four decades after ‘The Responsive Eye’ in
the
Museum of Modern Art, New York (1965), which presented Op Art to the
viewing public, the artist’s eye is urging ever onwards,
untrammelled and
with open relish. It reaches to the heights and to the depths, it
probes
micro and macro realms, and with its newly liberated gaze uncovers
the new
and the supposedly familiar. The title of the exhibition, chosen by
Curator Bice Curiger, also recalls the book ‘The Expanded
Cinema’ (1970),
which explored new departures in experimental cinema and undertook
a new
form of structural analysis as cinema did away with timeworn
clichés of
seeing and experiencing.
KINETIC OBJECTS, FILM- AND VIDEO INSTALLATIONS
Marcel Duchamp and Hans Haacke are represented in the exhibition with
kinetic objects; films by Maya Deren and Jud Yalkut are screened
alongside
video installations by Pipilotti Rist and Paul Pfeiffer. In
addition to
paintings by Josef Albers, Victor Vasarely and Bridget Riley,
drawings by
Henri Michaux, Markus Raetz and Thomas Bayrle, and spatial
installations
by Gianni Colombo, Otto Piene and Olafur Eliasson, there will also be
premieres of works created especially for this exhibition by Jules
Spinatsch and David Renggli. Works such as François Morellet’s ‘40,000
Squares’ (1963), specially reconstructed for the exhibition, turn the
spotlight on a form of art that, instead of providing a vehicle for
idealistic contemplation, invites the viewer to enjoy a purely
physiologically induced visual experience. In the programme of
accompanying events, the Kunsthaus will screen 16-mm films by Stan
Brakhage, Tony Conrad, Steina and Woody Vasulka, Peter Tscherkassky
and
others.
THE EYE AND THE CHALLENGE TO OUR SENSE OF REALITY
The eye is the dominant organ of our time; culture pays homage to our
sense of sight, constantly increasing visual access and expanding
into the
most diverse universes – geographical, physical, astral, cultural,
social,
physiological. The eye is the measure with which we assess the world
around us in the first – and often the last – instance. Satellite
images,
websites, livecams, microscopes and telescopes: vehicles that
mobilise our
sight and devices that aid our seeing have become second nature to
us. Our
capacity to virtually and in reality extend our physical reach and to
enhance our organs of perception has instigated a fundamental,
far-reaching change in our understanding of reality.
FROM THE EXPANDED EYE TO THE COLLECTIVE I
Concepts such as active/passive, subject/object, public/private,
individual/
collective have ceased to be distinctively different. Modern art
underwent
a similar process at the turn of the 20th century, when it found
itself
following a parallel track to the then latest scientific
discoveries in
fields ranging from physics (Cubism) to psychoanalysis (Surrealism),
reflected in the exhibition with works by Marcel Duchamp and Josef
Albers.
There has always been art that responds to the sharpened vision of the
contemporary sciences, that pressed forwards and posed questions.
Kunsthaus Zürich is taking stock of the current state of affairs.
For the
delimitation of the eye has implications for the artists’
understanding of
their role, as long as they are actively empathetic towards their
addressees. Art itself is always contemplated from outside. Its
game is
about exchange: the changing roles that result from changing
perspectives.
The ‘expanded eye’ becomes the ‘collective I’ and, as such, draws the
viewer into its circle.
LIST OF ARTISTS*
Josef Albers, Thomas Bayrle, Monica Bonvicini, Gianni Colombo,
Salvador
Dalí, Marcel Duchamp, Olafur Eliasson, Karl Gerster, Ruprecht
Geiger, Dan
Graham, Hans Haacke, Birgit/Wilhelm Hein, Garry Hill, Pierre Huyghe,
Carsten Höller, Jon Kessler, Peter Kubelka, David Lamelas, Malcolm Le
Grice, Julio Le Parc, Max Matter, Christian Megert, Jonas Mekas, Henri
Michaux, François Morellet, Ronald Nameth/Andy Warhol's Exploding
Plastic
Inevitable, Bruce Nauman, Nam June Paik,Warren Neidich, Philippe
Parreno,
Markus Raetz, David Renggli, Pipilotti Rist, Gerry Schum, Robert
Smithson,
Jean Tinguely, James Turrell, Victor Vasarely, Jud Yalkut, Jean-Pierre
Yvaral.
* Subject to change
PUBLICATION
The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue with texts by Bice
Curiger,
Ina Blom, Diedrich Diederichsen, Kurt W. Forster, A.L. Rees and
Rüdiger
Wehner. Available in German and English, this publication – in the
form of
an anthology – contains artists’ statements by Lucio Fontana and Josef
Albers, as well as theoretical essays by authors including Rudolf
Arnheim,
Georg Kubler and Teilhard de Chardin, reflecting on art and perception
research: 250 pages, 110 in colour, published by Hatje Cantz.
The exhibition is supported by Swiss Re – Partner for contemporary
art.
VISITOR INFORMATION
Kunsthaus Zürich, Heimplatz 1, CH – 8001 Zurich, www.kunsthaus.ch
Opening times Tues – Thurs 10 a.m. – 9 p.m., Fri – Sun 10 a.m. – 5
p.m.,
closed on Mondays
Public Holiday: 1 August, open 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.
Admission CHF 16.- / 10.- (concessions) / 12.- per head for groups
of 20
or more
Advanced Ticket Sales
Switzerland: Kombi-Ticket RailAway/SBB with 10% reduction on rail
travel
and entrance to the exhibition available at SBB stations and by
calling
Rail Service on 0900 300 300 (CHF 1.19/min.). Groups rates also
available.
Magasins Fnac, Tel. +33 1 4157 3212, www.fnac.ch
France: Magasins Fnac, Carrefour, Tel. 0892 684 694 (0.34 €/min.),
www.fnac.com
Belgium: Magasins Fnac, Tel. 0 900 00 600 (0.45 €/min.), www.fnac.com
For further information and visual materials, please contact
Kristin Steiner
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Tel. +41 (0)44 253 84 13
