This summer Kunsthal Rotterdam dedicates an exhibition to the internationally renowned contemporary artist Antony Gormley, the first one devoted to the sculptor in the Netherlands. The exhibition marks the purchase of the art work entitled Another Time II, which will be permanently positioned at the park side of the Kunsthal. During the exhibition, the sculpture is part of a spectacular installation entitled Event Horizon, which will be spread over fifteen buildings, silhouetted against the skyline of Rotterdam. In the monumental daylight hall of the building by Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas, Gormley stages two of his prominent installations, Allotment II (1996) and Critical Mass II (1995), together weighing as much as 100 tons, which have been transported to the Kunsthal by special flatbed trailers.
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Critical Mass II, 1995 Cast iron Variable, 60 lifesize elements Photograph taken by Elfi Tripamer, Vienna © Courtesy of the artist & Jay Jopling / White Cube |
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Antony Gormley radically re-investigates the central theme of art: human being. His powerful sculptures make us aware of the space we (literally) occupy. The basis of his oeuvre is the relation between ‘internal’ and ‘external’, the space inside and outside the human body. The exhibition focuses on the installations Allotment II and Critical Mass II, which both engage with the architecture of the Kunsthal, as well as a selection of key historical works.
In his investigation of the physical boundaries of the human body, Gormley often uses moulds of his own body, as with the compelling work Sense (1991) which presents this body as a concentrated silent space locked in concrete.
Allotment II , 1996 Reinforced concrete 300 life-size elements derived from the dimensions of local inhabitants of Malmö aged 1.5 - 80 years Installation view, Baltic, Newcastle, 1996
Photograph taken by Colin Davison, Newcastle. © Courtesy of the artist & Jay Jopling / White Cube |
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Critical Mass II is built up from sixty cast-iron moulds of Gormley thrown on the ground and suspended in the air. Allotment II consists of three hundred life-sized concrete elements based on the exact same number of inhabitants of the city of Malmö, Sweden. The petrified landscape of bunker-like figures conveys a claustrophobic and terrifying image of the collective urban body.
Event Horizon
To Gormley the (lived) interaction between visitor and work is essential. That is why he chooses to work in public space. For Event Horizon, Gormley will position 21 moulds of his body on the roofs of a number of prominent buildings, amongst which Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Erasmus MC, Hogeschool Rotterdam and the Euromast, all situated within a radius of 1 kilometer from the Kunsthal.
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Event Horizon, 2007 27 fibreglass and 4 cast iron figures 189 x 53 x 29 cm Installation views Hayward Gallery, London Photograph taken by Richard Bryant © Courtesy of the artist & Jay Jopling / White Cube |
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The figures confuse the perception of passengers-by, a disturbing infection of Rotterdam for both inhabitants and visitors alike. Attention is also paid to the project entitled Exposure, the 6th Flevoland landscape commission in Lelystad, to be completed in 2008. Exposure is a squatting 25-metre high body-space-frame overlooking the Markermeer. In size and impact Exposure can be ranged amongst big projects such as the Angel of the North.
Further information
Antony Gormley Between you and me |
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