Ugo Rondinone “Thank You Silence”
M MUSEUM
Leopold Vanderkelenstraat 28
B – 3000 Leuven,
June 27 – October 6, 2013
For over twenty years, Swiss artist Ugo Rondinone has been developing an oeuvre in a variety of media, from painting, graphic design, sculpture and photography to video and audio. His work is often based on themes and motifs from our everyday environment (light bulbs, masks, trees, etc.) that acquire a poetic dimension by being isolated, expanded or given a specific material treatment. With respect to their form, his installations contain diverse references to the history of art and popular culture. His work varies from landscapes drawn in Indian ink, reminiscent of Romanticism, to rainbow colored light sculptures that refer to sixties psychedelia.
For the first time in Belgium, the exhibition thank you silence is bringing together various series of works created by Rondinone over the past few years. In addition to poetic verse and a spatial installation of geometric volumes designed specifically for M, thank you silence also features the series nude,hyper-realistic wax statues of introverted figures. There are also a number of unusual clocks made of stained-glass window, as well as primitive, an extensive series of bronze bird sculptures.
Exhibitions of Ugo Rondinone’s work always present a comprehensive view that the artist himself describes as a dream landscape that leads the viewer to a different reality. This is no different in thank you silence. The artist carefully removes all references to time and space that might lead the viewer around the exhibition. As a result, parts of the exhibition rooms are architecturally transformed into monumental structures, or windows are covered so the only natural light in the room is filtered by the stained-glass of his installations. The alienating, tranquil atmosphere evoked by the exhibition space recurs in the confrontation between the exhibited series of works.
