The Self-Moving Number (1 Apr 2012 - 15 Apr 2012)

Artists: Grégory Cuquel, Luisa Kasalicky, Bjørn Melhus, Ornaghi & Prestinari

Dates: 01/04/12-15/04/14

Location: Duende Studios, Tamboerstraat 9, 3034PT Rotterdam

Opening: Sat 31/03/12 – 19:00

Opening Times: Fri, Sat, Sun 13:00-17:00 or by appointment

Artist Talk: Fri 30/03/12 – 19:00 @ Magic Bar, Pompstraat 44C, Charlois, Rotterdam
Magic Bar will host a talk in which Grégory Cuquel and Ornaghi & Prestinari will give an introduction to their work. Doors open at 19:00, talk begins 19:20. Food will be served after the talk.

Sils Project Space is proud to announce its forthcoming exhibition, The Self-Moving Number. This exhibition brings together four artists whose work deals with notions of time, space and materiality. Aesthetics from different time periods, as well as questioning the stuff the moon's made of and gifs steeped in gestalt are presented here as a survey that looks at the object. How do we associate with it? What is its role in the wider cultural field? How does an object’s composition dictate how we view it?

Luisa Kasalicky (AUS) takes constructivism and adds baroque as a bed fellow, a coupling that is a celebration of technical achievement as well as a juxtaposition that creates its own timeline; rather like what you would expect if the industrial revolution was instigated by the people of the dark-ages. In building this alternative history Kasalicky’s work sits in the gap between installation, painting and sculpture. Spaces are demarcated with linear structures, walls are re-clad with new surfaces and objects inhabit the gallery as furniture with undefined purpose. With a deep understanding of space, form, and surface Kasalicky ‘draws’ with commonly found materials and invests them with opulence. This is heraldic modernism.

Gregory Cuquel’s (FR) work is the sculptural equivalent of the graffiti found in toilet stalls (affiliation testing, sometimes funny but always urgent). His work is an insight into what it means to belong socially as well as what it means to assemble objects. Like a fanboy, Cuquel uses persistent imagery and symbols that surround Heavy Metal and Hardcore dance culture, often repeating them over and over as if mimicking the beats from which they came. In the early days of the Internet the .gif file format was the vehicle for a whole lot of, now annoying, spinning images of pretty much everything (mice, guitars, bananas…). For this exhibition Cuquel takes this dead horse and spanks some life into it.

The scientific and the poetic mix in the work of Ornaghi & Prestinari (IT). The result is work that questions what things are and the link between fact and fiction. Reminiscent of the unfurled pod that a Mars rover emerges from after landing, Cielo Di Pietra (Sky of Stone) is a reconstruction of the moon’s surface using information gleaned from the analysis of moon rocks. However, this “Lunar Regolith” is not made using expensive scientific apparatus. The work revolves around the premise that the moon was blasted off the earth in the early meteorite bombardment. In essence the earth and the moon are one and the same. This claim is the heart of the work.

The practice of Bjørn Melhus (DE) is a look at the relation between the moving image and the viewer. How are images and sounds from TV and movies appropriated by the spectator? Melhus is a filmmaker that relies heavily on sampling the speech of, often dead, singers, film and TV stars. He rearranges these samples to create the dialogue for the characters in his films. These characters, which are all played by himself, in turn, often mimic other well known screen stars; tap dancing Smurfs sing with the voice of Marilyn Monroe. Constructing these dislocated narratives makes Melhus a puppeteer of moving image iconography. Filmed in saturated 16mm, Auto Center Drive features Jimmy the chosen hero who embarks on an odyssey through California. He drifts through the landscape, encountering figures who give soundbite advice but no help.

This exhibition is made possible through the proceeds from our 2011 Silent Benefit Auction and the supported of:

We would like to thank Duende for hosting The Self-Moving Number during our nomadic program.