One of Europe’s leading contemporary artists, Pipilotti Rist will celebrate a major exhibition at FACT with the UK premieres of Gravity be My Friend (2007) and Open My Glade (2000).
Born in 1962, Pipilotti Rist is famed for her visually stunning sculptural video installations and is one of the most prominent artists working today. Her exhibition in Liverpool will challenge the way we look at art, physically as well as emotionally – be it lying on the floor watching a projection on the ceiling, perched on oversized furniture or peering through a crack on the floor.
Pipilotti Rist burst onto the international art scene in the late 1980s with works inspired by visual art, music, architecture and social politics. Celebrating the power of self-invention and the creation of new rules for humans living together, she mixes fantasy and the everyday in a humorous and kaleidoscopic exploration of the female voice and body in contemporary culture. Her contribution to the 51st Venice Biennale in 2005 provided the exhibition’s most decadent art experience, with huge projections on the ceiling of the baroque Chiesa di San Stae sweeping the viewer into the soaring dreamscape of her work.
At FACT, in an explosion of colour and imagery that spills from the galleries and into the public spaces, Pipilotti Rist will explore the third element of the Human Futures programme, my world, and our relationship with the natural environment. Her exhibition in Liverpool’s year as European Capital of Culture marks a decade since her participation in Arkipelag as part of Stockholm ‘s celebrations in 1998.
In Gallery 1 , the UK premiere of Gravity Be My Friend sees a re-working of the site-specific installation originally designed for Magasin 3 Stockholm Konsthall in 2007. On overall visual and sensorial experience the visitor lies on a “carpet landscape” to watch the work projected above.
In Gallery 2, FACT presents a selection of Pipilotti Rist’s finest work from the last few years; Apple Tree Innocent on Diamond Hill (2003) Ever is All Over (1997), Blutraum (1993/98) and Deine Raumkapsel (2006). A selection of works from a more mature artist, Gallery 2 will offer a sense of the development of Pipilotti Rist’s work over the last 15 years, entering a space of recombinant media.
In FACT’s interactive space, the Media Lounge the installation Das Zimmer (1994-2000) makes the viewer feel childlike as they sit on oversized furniture watching TV.
Projected onto the rear of FACT will be Open My Glade , a work originally commissioned to be shown in Times Square in New York . Pipilotti Rist’s first public art project in New York , the piece was composed of 16 one-minute video segments at a quarter past every hour. Set against the Times Square backdrop of flashing advertising and messages, the videos appeared in slow-motion. Transported to FACT, the work will appear at the intersection of Liverpool ‘s busy nightlife, bringing a new dimension to the piece.