GROWTH CHAMBER (MARTIAN MUSTARD), I Sotteranei dell'Arte, Monte Carasso 2009    GROWTH CHAMBER (MARTIAN MUSTARD), installation, 245x245x900cm Aurelio Kopainig Second Nature April 19 > May 17 2009 I Sotteranei dell'Arte, Monte Carasso from Pressrelease: Man has always coexisted with the nature around him in a symbiotic relationship that wavers between dependence, protection and exploitation. The invention of agriculture and livestock raising, and the successive agricultural and industrial revolutions, have defined and accompanied the evolution of civilizations. Aurelio Kopainig takes a personal look at the everyday relationship between man and nature, and the many attempts to protect, to tame, to restrict nature: from private domestic gardens to the greenhouses of industrial agricultural production. The artist’s interest in this theme began during his training at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie of Amsterdam, and developed during his time at the San Francisco Art Institute. In his photographs he documents real examples of man’s manipulation of nature, while his installation are scale reproductions of the principle and model of the greenhouse, exploring the metaphor of manipulation and growth. In the animations Kopainig makes with a Super-8 camera and the stop-motion technique, he playfully, poetically stages the relationship of force between nature’s tendency toward chaos and man’s will to control the situation. While human beings are apparently absent in his works, their protagonist is man’s influence over objects and the environment. Perhaps this need of man to constrain and tame a chaotic, disorderly nature reflects an obsessive desire to control the incessant change that is part of life, or even a strategy for avoiding death. The artist has made a series of animated films in the spaces of the old Augustinian Convent, which will be screened during his solo show, alongside a selection of photographs and new installations. Exhibition curated by Boris Magrini  Projections: HOUSES & TREES, 2001-08 / Untitled, 2009 |
