BALANCE
curated by RAFFAELE GAVARRO
It is difficult to underestimate the importance of the concept of balance in our lives. We only have to consider the manifold ways in which it is used in everyday discourse as an indication of a wise way of looking at things: “to be balanced”, “to keep your balance”, but also “a balanced judgement”. These examples need little explanation.
But the term balance also has a more inconventional meaning, indicating the capacity to remain uncertain, a refusal to apply a single signifance to the multiplicity of meanings which make up our everyday reality. When balance becomes the capacity to play with double, triple or multiple meanings, aimed at revealing the the less visible nature of things, words and our experiences of life.
Balance is an exhibition which explores the subtle liminality of the word, balanced on a line which is as much physical, as mental and conceptual. The artists invited to exhibit at Balance zigzag back and forth across this line continously.
Kuba Bakowski (born 1971 in Poznan, Poland and currently resident in New York) examines the delicate balance between reality and its alteration. In Balance, Bakowski presents a series of lightboxes from his recent series Ursa Major. His idea unfolds in a series of photographic images in which groups of seven people, holding light bulbs, recreate the shape of the constellation. Beside this will be Untitled Installation with globe (2006), in which an inflatable globe sits at the centre of an air current created by ten small fans.
Haris Epaminonda (born 1980 in Nicosia, Cyprus and currently resident in Berlin) moves between the real and the virtual, challenging the viewer’s ability to uncover limits and openings. In Balance, Epaminonda presents the videos Elapsed and Tarahi II. Both of them are furnished with soundtracks which highten the idea of temporal suspension evident in the landscape of Elapsed and the characters of Tarahi II.
James Hopkins (born 1976 in Stockport, England and now resident in London) pushes the idea of balance to the threshold of illusion. Transformed objects, installations and distorted perceptions form his linguistic ambiance. In Balance Hopkins presents a series of installations and of manipulated and altered objects, as well as a photo, Mysteyspot, all of which are dedicated to the various declensions of the term equilibrium.
Carlos Irijalba (born 1979 in Pamplona and currently resident in Madrid) works with varied media, entirely transforming objects and creating images which work on the modification of perception. In Balance, Irijalba presents a number of photographs from the series Outside comes first and Devices.
Jaime Pitarch (born 1963 in Barcelona, Spain where he now lives) works in diverse media, moving from scultpture and installations to photography and video. An ironic balance and subversion of the rules forms a constant in all his works. In Balance, Pitarch presents a map from the series Pangea, a picture from his Puzzle series, the sculpture Wooden Pegs made of clothes pegs and a video entitled Rethinking David and Goliath.
Matt Stokes (born in 1973 Penzance, Cornwall, UK and living in Newcastle) was the winner of Beck’s Future 2006 with the video Long after tonight. In Balance Stokes presents another video, Cypher. Shot in super 16mm in Usher Hall, Edinburgh, Scotland in 2006 Cypher is an extraordinary visual and aural fresco, dominated by the protagonist, a grandiose pipe organ. Next to this will be the installation entitled Sacred Selections, this is dedicated to experimental music concerts, all expressly commisioned and transcribed for the pipe organ. The work is composed of three flags, a series of posters and concert programs, a bench and wooden box with a CD player inside, with various headphones attached to listen to the organs which play scores that range from northern soul to black metal.
For any further information please contact:
gallery@unosunove.com