Zimoun: [KE]3

bitforms gallery presents a series of three collaborative solo exhibitions in New York that feature kinetic sculpture by Swiss installation artist Zimoun.

Zimoun, “[KE] 3”, exhibition view
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 demploys 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 that describe 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 presents. These twelve pieces are radically reductive in format and are 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.

In Queens, at the Knockdown Center, Zimoun built a newly commissioned immersive environment of 250 motorized wood beams and ropes. Each unit cyclically strikes the floor, producing a sonic experience reverberating within a 10,000 square foot atrium space with 40-foot ceilings.

Zimoun, “[KE] 3”, exhibition view
Top and above: Zimoun, 250 prepared ac-motors, 325 kg roof laths, 1.8 km rope, 2015. Motors, wood, steel hooks, nylon fiber, power transformer. Installation view at Knockdown Center, Queens NY. Photos courtesy bitforms gallery, New York

Zimoun
[KE] 3


until April 9, 2015
Simons Center for Geometry and Physics
Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY
175 prepared dc-motors, 150 filler wires, 25 cotton balls, 3 screens, 25 cardboard boxes

until March 8, 2015
Knockdown Center
52-19 Flushing Ave, Maspeth, Queens, NY
250 prepared ac-motors, 325 kg roof laths, 1.8 km rope

until 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

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