On Colors, Gestures and Transformation

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Image courtesy of La Virreina Centre de la Imatge.

Many of the projects undertaken by Andreas M. Kaufmann (Zurich, 1961) explore the role that technology plays in the construction of linguistic, sensory and even ideological perceptions. However, instead of dwelling on its most obvious quirks such as unidirectional interaction, games that distort or endorse the subject of observation and the sense of wonder aroused by certain devices, the artist actually investigates the opposite. In other words, he studies to what extent there are some forms of technological expression that not only “question themselves” to allow the grammatical elements within them to be glimpsed, but also become vehicles of simplicity and channels that assemble interfaces and their rearguards.

A usage proposal rather than a poetics, a production of meaning rather than a statement of intentions. That is how we might consider the role of the device in the works by Kaufmann, who brings to all of this a certain playful vision blended with positions that are not devoid of political irony. Because, when machines “talk,” when they eschew their “gadget” nature, all they actually do is announce their inherent anachronism, the characteristic that enables them to occupy several space-times at once. Indeed, it is such simultaneity–the most inalienable condition of a work of art–that distinguishes art from science or history, is it not?

On colours, gestures and transformation is a show that brings together three different works: the installation 13 Blind Men Walking (1999), the electronic sculpture Public Monument: Carlos (1998-1999) and the project Innocent Colors (in progress).

It is a triptych in which each individual component respectively examines the processes of dislocation of audio and visual coordinates, collective attention systems in public space, and the antagonistic relationships between information, propaganda and photography.

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