Artist: Pep Vidal
Exhibition title: As a Whole
Venue: Rolando Anselmi, Berlin, Germany
Date: June 13 – September 5, 2015
Photography: Riccardo Malberti, images copyright and courtesy of the artist and Galerie Rolando Anselmi, Berlin
Galerie Rolando Anselmi is delighted to present As a Whole, the first solo show in Germany and in its space in Berlin by Pep Vidal. The artist, linking scientific thought as life experience to his artistic practice, works with the concepts of systems and infinitesimal changes. Very small changes that take place constantly, everywhere, along a chaotic and almost infinite chain. Infinitesimal changes that produce bigger and visible changes. For his show As a Whole, Vidal will present a site-specific installation in the first room, transforming the white wall gallery space in a coordinate system. From a distance it appears as an obsessive repetition of points, with a blurry effect, but after a closer look, one realizes that these points are actually a regular succession of yellow smiley faces, covering the four sides of the room. Thousands of eyes pointed toward the center, staring at the visitor. Starting point for Vidal is the often-imperceptible impact that all gestures have on their surroundings and the consideration that each space with any kind of interaction is a system that can be modified, or destroyed, in order to create new systems. Systems are constantly modifying due to infinitesimal changes. In this occasion Vidal builds a coordinate system where spectators, as dynamic elements, are the main focus, together with other static elements, which are working with the accuracy and limits of control of the system. The viewer, moving around the space, is in a way continuously repositioning itself in relation to the system created by the artist. The repetitive, controlled, measured nature of the coordinates confronts with the lightness and friendly appearance of the yellow smileys, as a reminder of the numerous dichotomies that characterize our reality. Suddenly we see a sculpture, Collapse, coming out from the wall. It is a column made by smileys stickers, one on the top of the other, representing the unexpected collapse of the coordinate system, standing as metaphor of destruction and recreation. Using science as the basis of his methodology, Pep Vidal recreates a singular space and a theoretical framework in the unresolved attempt to investigate chaotic and orderly processes that define our reality, and is questioning the creative act itself.
Chaos, 2015
Over and over and over, 2015
Hidden, 2015
Grid and extra slim grid, 2015
Collapse, 2015