Cinetik !

After the exhibition Erró. L’ull planetari, which could be visited in 2012, the Fundació Stämpfli presents its second temporary exhibition: Cinetik!. The curator of this show is Serge Lemoine, also curator of the exhibition Dynamo. Un siècle de lumière et de mouvement dans l’art 1913–2013 (Dynamo. A Century of Light and Movement in Art 1913–2013), presented at the Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais in Paris until July 22, 2013.

The exhibition Cinetik! focuses on an artistic movement that developed during the 1950s and 1960s: lumino-kinetism. The artists who took part in it devoted themselves, in their works, to exploring the notions of vision, space, light, structure, and movement through installations that allow the visitor to interact. The Fundació Stämpfli presents a selection of historical figures of optical and kinetic art who participated in this movement and who share the particular feature of having Spanish or Latin American origins, although most of them eventually lived in Paris: Antonio Asís, Martha Boto, Carlos Cruz-Díez, Iván Contreras-Brunet, Hugo Demarco, Ángel Duarte, Horacio García-Rossi, Francisco Sobrino, Jesús Rafael Soto, Luís Tomasello, Gregorio Vardanega.

This movement continues to influence numerous contemporary artists – such as Elías Crespin, presented here – who reinterpret the themes explored by the previous generation: grids, interferences, instability, programming, permutation, chance, force fields, flickering, real or virtual movement… All these creations are based on the experience of vision, the appreciation of phenomena, and the exclusive use of an abstract language.

The works of these artists are exhibited according to two main axes: light (space 2) and movement (space 3). Serge Lemoine has also chosen to present a work by Peter Stämpfli, Ligne continue (Continuous Line) (space 3), a film created in 1974 that shows images of continuous or alternating lines – coming from road markings scrolling linearly – as a representation of a decidedly abstract trajectory.

With the exhibition Cinetik!, the Fundació Stämpfli, which already brings together in its collection a representative selection of prestigious international artists from the second half of the 20th century, positions itself among the major cultural institutions that bring contemporary art to life.

Space 2: Antonio Asís, Martha Boto, Carlos Cruz-Díez, Iván Contreras-Brunet, Hugo Demarco, Horacio García-Rossi, Jesús Rafael Soto, Luís Tomasello, Gregorio Vardanega

Space 3: Elías Crespin, Ángel Duarte, Francisco Sobrino, Peter Stämpfli