Jaime Gili

Bill at Pittier

October 11 - November 22 2009

Jaime Gili's large-scale acrylic paintings show geometrical forms in truly explosive compositions; an intricate mesh of forms and colours catches the spectator's attention and draws it into the paintings or, on the contrary, with a dynamic impulse launches it beyond the artworks' boundaries. The vibrant atmosphere is also created by the surroundings; Jaime Gili prefers to present his paintings in front of self-designed wallpaintings or wallpaper with similar aesthetics. As a consequence the artwork turns into a crystalline pulsating organism and becomes almost alive; and with each movement of the eye the single parts of this organism change in a kaleidoscopic way. The thematic background for the show at Kunsthalle is provided by two Swiss luminaries; Max Bill, icon of the Zurich Concrete art movement and pioneer of the design avant garde in the 1950s; and Henri Pittier (1857-1950), who explored the Venezuelan jungle and gave his name to the first national park there. The wilderness of the jungle, providing living space for countless plants and animals, seems like the antithesis to Bill's formalist and reductionist universe; for Gili, however, it is the tension resulting from the combination of them both that makes him think about the possibility of an abstraction of the tropical jungle. Based on the idea of an abstract jungle, the installation turns into an artificial garden that is designed for viewing from specific viewpoints, very much in the tradition of the English garden. The large-scale paintings are integral parts within the thicket of artificially designed surroundings and wallpapers, but at the same time they stand out as solitary and autonomous objects.

Joëlle Menzi