ART CITIES:Paris-Jannis Kounellis
Much has been said and written about Jannis Kounellis’ involvement with the Arte Povera Movement. His iconic works encompassing the objet trouvé concept by employing inexpensive media achieved international acclaim. Going a step further he incorporated new exciting media and even live animals while at the same time he emphasised on the unique industrial character of the chosen exhibition locations.
By Efi Michalarou
Photo: Galerie Karsten Greve Archive
The exhibition at Galerie Karsten Greve in Paris is a tribute to Jannis Kounellis, one of the major figures of art of the 20th and 21st Centuries. Presenting 10 works created between 1963 and 2010, the exhibition offers a journey through the work the artist, where the material metamorphosis corresponds to the range of the ongoing journey that has been travelled. Jannis Kounellis in 1956 at the age of 20, left Greece and enrolled at the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome. Although the creative environment of the time was mainly characterized by Art Informel, Jannis Kounellis kept his distance vis-à-vis this abstract and gestural tendency. His first solo exhibition “L’alfabeto di Kounellis”, was held in Rome in 1960 at the Galleria La Tartaruga. At that time Kounellis was still a student and painted signs from the cityscape and road signs. By seizing this urban language, Kounellis seems to refer to the first meaning of the polis, the heart of public life that saw the birth of thought: since art, too, is a public affair. Another great cradle of civilization, the sea is also present in the works of the 1960’s. “Pireo” (1963), bearing the name of the Athens port where Jannis Kounellis was born, metaphorically evokes the question of the fate of classical cultural heritage, this sun that has just risen or may be about to set. “Untitled” (1964), a work on canvas created the following year, testifies to the role of rhythm and space, which would lead to the scenic installations of the 1970s. The work “Untitled” (1968) was produced a year after the Arte Povera exhibition organized by Germano Celant in Genoa: it was thus that the critic called poor art, referring to this generation whose works were characterized by the simplicity of the materials used. The language of Jannis Kounellis, but also that of Giovanni Anselmo, Giuseppe Penone, Mario Merz, Michelangelo Pistoletto, and other protagonists of this trend, does indeed strive to cancel the gap between artistic creation and everyday life. The phrase “nature and culture” was then no longer a dichotomy but finally became a partnership. Wool, rope and wood, materials that are found in the works of 2000 and 2004, testify to this return to modest life and to working tools. Both in their own sense and in the figurative, the themes of origin, exile and belonging pervade the work of Jannis Kounellis. Consisting of a military hospital bed, “Untitled” (2010) is particularly explicit of this. Wool comforters, well known to those who have done military service, cover a steel body that is sharp and cold. Both anonymous and universal, this supine shape takes us back to one of the most current and complex issues of our day, that of asylum, flight and shelter. Having highlighted the risks of a society fascinated by consumption for over 50 years, the work of Jannis Kounellis once again confirms its astonishing actuality.
Info: Galerie Karsten Greve, 5 rue Debelleyme, Paris, Duration: 10/5-30/7/16, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat 10:00-19:00, www.galerie-karsten-greve.com
