Konrad Smolenski

VOID. If The Universe Is Expanding, Are We Drifting Apart Too?

June 15 – July 27 2014

As part of a co-operation with CentrePasquArt in Biel, Kunsthalle Winterthur presents new works by Polish artist Konrad Smolenski (b.1977, lives and works in Warsaw and Berne).
The main hall at Kunsthalle will be dominated by Dizzy Spells (2014), two inflatable windy men in combination with a modified harmonium. The figures, usually funny and colourful, have grim looking features and are no longer reminiscent of a fun park or a child’s birthday party anymore; if anything, it would be a dark fetish room that is brought to mind. Smolenski also modified the ventilators providing the windy men with air, so the figures now and then seem to collapse from exhaustion. In combination with the monotone sounds of the harmonium, a rather melancholic atmosphere is the result.
In the two smaller rooms, On Air (2014) and The Stage (2014) are shown among other works. On Air consists of a cable that leads to a schematic musical instrument, from where it fits on to a shoulder strap. The musician himself has long disappeared, he is only indicated as a void; the bent over negative form also suggests a gesture of physical exhaustion, here obviously linked to creation. Also The Stage deals with absence; on occasion of the opening night, Smolenski’s performance group BNNT will provide the audience with one of their typically aggressive and loud presentations. For the rest of the show however the whole stage and equipment will serve as remnants of something obviously missed. The absence of the artist is a threat and comfort at once: on the one hand it points to the transience of the creator, on the other to the possibly much longer life of his creation.

Oliver Kielmayer