NOT VITAL
SCULPTURES AND DRAWINGS
KUNSTRAUM DER DEUTSCHEN BANK, SCHWARZSTRASSE 30, SALZBURG
29 AUGUST – 8 OCTOBER 2005

Not Vital, born in Sent, Switzerland, in 1948, is one of the leading international contemporary sculptors. His works have been shown in well-known institutions worldwide, including the Kunsthalle Basel (1994), Kunsthalle Malmö (1997), or recently for the second time in the Kunsthalle Bielefeld (2005). He has also made significant contributions to the Venice Biennale (2001), as well as to group exhibitions in the MoMA, New York (1996), Guggenheim Museum (1996), or the Hong Kong Museum of Art (1995).

Self-taught, Not Vital developed his own forms of expression, which are influenced by the archaic Swiss mountains, the urban culture of his adopted home of New York and his protracted trips to the African desert town of Agadez. His characteristic open-mindedness towards the most varied cultures is perceptible both in his extra-European motifs and in the way he combines them. This results in surrealistic and culturally ambiguous works, such as Camel on Skis (1993), in which the various materials seem quite unrelated, combining apparently contradictory elements.

After a solo exhibition in Paris, we are proud to present recent works by the artist in Salzburg, where we have represented him for fifteen years. The group of works comprises a series of sculptures and drawings, all – typically of Not Vital's work – somewhere between representational art and minimalist abstraction. The sometimes costly materiality of the sculptures lends them great intensity.

With Camel (2003), Vital declares his further adherence to animal motifs, although only the title gives a clue to the content of these fifteen ceramic spheres made in Agadez: the remains of a sun-dried camel, cut into pieces and portioned out. – A work which touches on the mental image of interment and concealment; a constructed cultural fragment containing the power of the physical senses. What remains is the question of whether one can really believe what one sees and really see what one believes.

The unknown keeps erupting in Not Vital's work, and the various possible associations prevent any clear classification. Thus also in 1000 Tears (2004): the artist inscribes a thousand imprints of tears in an apparently archaic stele.

Despite his origins, Vital does not develop an imaginary natural salon, but presents phenomena involving his world travels and incomparable ideas.

There will be a catalogue with an interview by Louise Neri to accompany the exhibition.

For further information, please contact Arne Ehmann ([email protected], +43 662 881 393).

Thaddaeus Ropac

Arne Ehmann