June 15 – July 28, 2007
An exhibition of new works by Aloïs Godinat, his first solo presentation in a US institution.
June 15 – July 28, 2007
An exhibition of new works by Aloïs Godinat, his first solo presentation in a US institution.
For his first exhibition in the United States, Aloïs Godinat presents new works. They include Dechirure, a torn poster applied directly to the wall and Untitled, a minimal X shape pattern held within a square, both made of thin fabric, a wall structure seemingly hard edged from afar, but loose on the edges upon closed inspection. A sculpture stands in the middle of the space: a speaker, hovering, off kilter, on one of its lower edges. It remains in this precarious position due the small object created by Godinat, a plastic wedge. While this object maintains its function, at the same time it assumes, albeit quietly and in the most minimal manner, a sculptural, transformative role. We are left with a dark cube, standing in equilibrium on its corner, diffusing the sound a beating drum, the announcement for a spectacular finale never to happen or the public address never to be made.
Quietly irreverent, Godinat proceeds from a reflection on the tradition of the abstract and concrete avant garde. He develops a vocabulary, using modest gestures rather than heroic ones, as a means to explore the minimal possibilities of creating. He makes it clear that the breakthrough ideas of the avant garde in art history came with economical gestures. One sometimes forgets that Yves Klein’s blue pigment was originally the cheapest and easiest to find pigment in Paris. There is evolution when there is economy.
This project space and accompanying publication are made possible through support from CAMPARI and Pro Helvetia.