ART CITIES:Zurich-Pipilotti Rist, Retrospective

Pipilotti Rist is known for her provocative, often humorous, but always stylish work. She emerged on the International Art scene in the mid-‘80s and ‘90s with famous single channel videos such as “I’m Not The Girl Who Misses Much” (1986) and “Pickelporno” (1992), her installations capture the many contradictions and anxieties of modern society. In 2009 she released her first feature film entitled “Pepperminta”, the story of an “Anarchist of the imagination” who lives according to her own rules.

By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: Kunsthaus Zürich Archive

The exhibition “Your Saliva is my Diving Suit in the Ocean of Pain”, of Pipilotti Rist at Kunsthaus Zürich presents 41 key works from the beginning of her career, including the early single-channel videos with which she became known in the ‘80s. Pipilotti Rist created a large-format installation in the expansive space (1000m2) of the Bührle gallery specially for the exhibition, in which she explores new artistic and technical avenues. The exhibition is more than just a retrospective, it is conceived to fill the designated space in its totality as one single installation, in which new works specially created for the Kunsthaus and older works reveal surprising links between the various phases of her career and fields of activity. Except the early single-channel videos with which she became known in the ‘80s. The large-scale video installation “Worry Will Vanish Horizon” (2014) is on presentation for the first time in Zurich, and a new, large-format work created specially for the Kunsthaus, “Pixelforest” (2016). As in her other works, light, colour and the viewer’s own movements play a central role in this installation. The “Pixelforest” consists of 3,000 LED lights suspended in space on strands of cable that merge into a magical image forest which visitors can wander through. Each LED is individually controlled by a video signal, so that the forest of lights is constantly changing, like “A screen exploding in space”, as the artist herself describes it. Pipilotti Rist challenges our senses and draws us into a colourful and highly imaginative world. Playfully and humorously, she reflects on questions of perception and addresses feminist issues at the same time. Elaborate technology encounters small and loving gestures. With installations such as “The Innocent Collection” (1985–ca. 2032) and “Nothing” (1999), the exhibition also extends to spaces outside the exhibition gallery, to the Heimplatz and the café in the entrance hall of the Kunsthaus. Also visible in the public spaces are the “Tactile Lights” (2016). These were developed by the artist in close cooperation with the Kunsthaus Zürich specially for the historic glass roof over the entrance hall of the Kunsthaus and for one of the reliefs on the façade. The installation in the roof space, with its “moving lights”, is designed to make an impression from outside, and can be seen from the Heimplatz and the adjoining site at night. The associated video projection is directed at one of the five neoclassical reliefs. The relief “Amazon Battle” (1910) by Carl Burckhardt, on the North-West façade, depicts an Amazon who is fighting with a Greek and is set free by the projection.

Info: Curator: Mirjam Varadinis, Kunsthaus Zürich, Heimplatz 1, Zurich, Duration: 26/2-8/5/16, Days & Hours: Tue & Fri–Sun 10:00-18:00, Wed-Thu 10:00-20:00, www.kunsthaus.ch