Pressurizing

Zoro Feigl

1 أيار / مايو 2010
12 Jun 2010

A jumbled heap of red garden hoses fills the front space of Galerie Fons Welters. The generator starts up. Slowly the hoses come to life. Swelling with the pressure of 10 bar, they unwind and rear up, wind themselves into strange coils and kinks, stretch to their fullest extent in elegant loops, and rise up and off the floor. Then the pressure is switched off and they subside again, like a house of cards falling in slow motion.

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Zoro Feigl - bron

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In an unending cycle, the installation Pressurizing by Zoro Feigl (1983, Amsterdam) slowly inhales and exhales. It constitutes a dense jungle for visitors, who can scarcely squeeze past it and have to judge carefully when best to move, to avoid getting tangled up in it. The pressure that sets the hoses in motion is industrial, mechanical, as so often in the work of Feigl: bouncing silver balls driven by a drill; an iron chain that moves in a rhythm dictated by the changing force of a motorcycle wheel; two wheels that impart speed and shape to a piece of string. Machines rule in the sculptures, but they are always endowed with a certain kind of life that looks quite organic and natural.

In Pressurizing, Feigl appears to be literally breathing life into the fire-hoses. An animated rhythm is generated, in which the hoses find their own way in the space. But their chaos is deceptive: the pressure dictates the dance, the shape follows the physical forces. Still, Feigl’s work is more than the result of a physics formula. Experimentally, he tries to establish an equilibrium using what mechanics has to offer, to display its beauty with a minimal gesture.

Opening

1 May: 5-7