Vienna, 26 April 2016

21er Haus

Museum of Contemporary Art Quartier Belvedere Arsenalstraße 1 1030 Vienna, Austria

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Gregorio Vardanega, Jeux électroniques, 1966, Private Collection Bad Homburg, Photo: © Belvedere, Vienna/ © Bildrecht, Vienna, 2016

Retrospect: Kinetika 1967 27 April 2016 to 28 August 2016

Light shows, optical illusions and veritable machines of perception will be on display at the 21er Haus from 27 April to 28 August 2016. Retrospect: Kinetika 1967 gathers together 25 masterpieces of kinetic light art and op art by Nicolas Schöffer, Julio Le Parc, Martha Boto, Heinz Mack and Lily Greenham, among others. The exhibition brings to life the way in which technology, cybernetics and visual research found their way to the other side of the screen and into art in the 1960s.

A historical point of reference is provided by Kinetika, the first international op art exhibition in Austria, which took place in 1967 at the Museum of the Twentieth Century, the predecessor of -garde art trends to Vienna that saw their point of departure in rationale and not in genius.

ssions of the 21er Haus is to build bridges in this case specifically by bringing -day artistic production. In contemporary art, movement and light, the interaction between man and machine, as well as the

Agnes Husslein- exhibition.

The current display shows a cross section of the representatives who participated in the original exhibition and who positioned light, movement and ideas from programming and chance at the -sustaining system, which no longer left the viewer simply to marvel at works passively, but rather located

Chief Curator of the 21er Haus, Harald Krejci. He has chosen 25 diverse exhibits that range from concrete art to simple movement and light objects to complicated light-kinetic works.

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Vienna, 26 April 2016

Among the major works in Retrospect: Kinetika 1967 is the light-dynamic sculpture Microtemps Nr. 15 (1965) by Nicolas Schöffer. When you look into the interior of the wooden box, you see discs and pieces of metal rotating at different speeds. As a result of the moving pieces and the changing light reflected on the shiny materials, the boundaries between movement and colour become blurred. Like a bed of nails, Horacio Garcia Rossi inserted countless Plexiglas rods into his light box Boîte lumineuse (1964), which glow at random in constantly changing colours. Untitled (1965) features moving circles of light. When Jeux électroniques (1966) by Gregorio Vardanega is connected to electricity, 4, 7, 12 sometimes more, sometimes fewer rings simultaneously light up in white and turquoise. The work comprises 20 plastic cylinders arranged in a grid-like formation, which protrude from the front side of the box. With the aid of a relay circuit, various regularly repeated light patterns are created. Martha Boto, too, uses plastic cylinders as light bearers for her dynamic picture Exaltations lumineux alternées (1967). In the kinetic light object Losanges et carrés en mouvement (1966) by Lily Greenham, the individual colours in the pattern of diamonds and squares are enhanced and brought into motion by brightly coloured light bulbs, which rhythmically light up, one by one, on the inside of the object. The light in Scatola di luce (1966) by Julie Le Parc streams through slits in rotating metal discs and gives the appearance of atmospheric vapours drifting through the air. Heinz Mack imitates sunlight in his work Sun of the Sea (1965), which is reflected on the surface of the water and oscillates due to the movement of the waves.

The accompanying exhibition catalogue of the same name, edited by Agnes Husslein-Arco, Harald Krejci and Axel Köhne, is available now and contains the visual documentation in colour of the Kinetika exhibition from 1967. Phosphorescent silkscreen inks were used to create the cover.

Retrospect: Kinetika 1967 will be presented at two locations: in the Wotruba Room on the lower floor of the museum as well as in the 21er Raum on the upper floor, where the show Abstract Loop Austria will continue to be on display until 29th May. The latter exhibition focuses on the beginnings of constructive-concrete art and op art in Austria on the basis of works by Marc Adrian, Richard Kriesche and Helga Philipp.

List of Participating Artists Marc Adrian Heinz Mack Antonio Asis Enzo Mari Martha BotoGianni Colombo Koloman Novak Toni Costa Hermann J. Painitz Hugo Demarco Helga Philipp Günther Fruhtrunk Nicolas Schöffer Horacio Garcia-Rossi Ed Sommer Karl Gerstner Joel Stein Gerhard von Graevenitz Jean Tinguely Lily Greenham Grégorio Vardanega Richard Kriesche Victor Vasarely Julio Le Parc Yvaral (Jean-Pierre Vasarely

#Kinetika21

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Vienna, 26 April 2016

General Information

Title Retrospect: Kinetika 1967

Works 25

Curator Harald Krejci

Duration 27 April 2016 to 28 August 2016

Curators tours Wednesday, 16 March 2016 | 6 pm Wednesday, 22 June 2016 | 7 pm Free admission with valid ticket | Registration required

Program Lecture Neue Tendenzen with Armin Medosch (Art- and Mediatheorist) Wednesday, 15 June 2016 | 7 pm Free admission with valid ticket | Registration required

Venue 21er Haus Museum of Contemporary Art Quartier Belvedere, Arsenalstraße 1, 1030 Vienna

Opening hours Wednesday 11 am to 9 pm Thursday to Sunday 11 am to 6 pm Open on public holidays

Tickets

Kinder und Jugendliche bis 18 Jahre | frei

Visitor Service Michaela Köppl +43 1 795 57-707 [email protected]

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