Raffaele Quattrone

Zimoun

 

 

 

"Since long time I have been following the artistic practice of Zimoun, a well-known Swiss artist with whom recently I have established an important friendship and a fruitful interchange of ideas and views. Zimoun creates really striking sound architectures walking in which is like to walk into an anthill, a beehive or a factory. The sound of his architectures remembers us that we are not alone but if we look around us we cannot find any human presence but only the architectures that he creates with simple materials such as cardboard boxes or plastic bags and motorized mechanical units like dcmotors, wires, microphones etc. Often we can enter the installation or walk in it being surrounded by repetitive and standardized sounds that recall the chaos of our activities in contemporary Western society. So the silent architecture of the spaces are transformed into active spaces that let us reflecting on our contemporary life, our relationships with machines and technology, our relation with the memories, the past and the lost simplicity. His artistic practice connects the common sense and materials to abstract themes of universal range. Our contemporary has specialized us very much so that now we consider us very different and individualized. With his minimalist and modernist practice he shows us a possible and different way to think about our future and sense of community", text written to nominate Zimoun at Artes Mundi 7.

 

Zimoun, born in Switzerland in 1977, lives and works in Bern. His work has been presented in solo and group shows as well as performances internationally. Zimoun has been awarded different art prizes and residencies and has served as a guest lecturer. In 2003 Zimoun co-founded Leerraum.ch - a platform publishing works which explore forms and structures based on reductive principles and systems.
Recent displays of his work include exhibitions at the Nam June Paik Art Museum in Korea; Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts, Taipei; Ringling Museum of Art, Florida; Harnett Museum of Art, Richmond; bitforms gallery New York; Kunsthalle Bern; Seoul Museum of Art; Museum of Contemporary Art Liechtenstein; Fine Arts Museum Rennes; Art Basel; Galerie Denise René Paris; Museum Les Champs Libres, Rennes;  Contemporary Art Museum MNAC Bucharest; Beall Art Center, Los Angeles; Museum of Fine Arts Bern; Museum of Contemporary Art MSUM, Ljubljana; National Art Museum, Beijing; Museum of Fine Arts Lugano; among others.

 

 

www.zimoun.net