THE VELOCITY OF STONES — IN THE RACK ROOM #27
VIKENTI KOMITSKI
Preview TUE, SEP 26, 2023, 7 — 9pm
Open by appointment until OCT 21, 2023
LAGE EGAL [ITRR]
Liselotte-Herrmann-Str. 26 (HH), 10407 Berlin
Contact: sonderlage@lage-egal.net
0179 6796333 (Sarie Nijboer)
VIKENTI KOMITSKI’s exhibition THE VELOCITY OF STONE at IN THE RACK ROOM navigates a world where nature and industry are constantly transforming, highlighting the dire consequences of relentless resource exploitation and ecological degradation. The exhibition features assemblages and installations in which he fuses natural elements with discarded materials.
It addresses the conflict between nature and culture, exploring humans’ insatiable desire to control nature and its consequences. In the exhibition space, nature, displaced from its habitat, becomes a ghostly presence, finding solace in mechanical remains. At the same time, the objects almost present a frozen moment of time, a moment that is in the past or perhaps a possible future yet to come.
For his installation, he placed several motherboards dissolved in crystals in an aquarium. The work is presented in conjunction with a grid of light, enhancing the crystals’ vibrant structure. By blending nature with technology, the artist challenges the distinction between the organic and the artificial. They are brought together by several assemblages, for which KOMITSKI drew inspiration from The pneumatics of Hero of Alexandria, a book by the mathematician and engineer Hero of Alexandria that gives descriptions of machines that work by air, steam or water pressure. The images stem from an 1851 translation and illustration of the book, which the artist transformed and assembled into a new work on paper. The works are brought together with sculptures that each convey KOMITSKI’s artistic language of combining 20th-century avant-garde movements with science fiction and dystopian narratives and aesthetics.
While the mechanical objects and computer hard drives in the exhibition space symbolize industrialization and resource extraction, grid structures here allude to the rationality of modernism, whereas text elements introduce discourse. By removing objects from their urban environments and reshaping them as site-specific structures, KOMITSKI allows viewers to enter a world that offers a critical yet philosophical reflection on the Anthropocene, where the boundaries between natural and artificial are blurred. At the same time, the exhibition is an invitation to prompt us to reflect on our role in shaping this era. (Sarie Nijboer)
VIKENTI KOMITSKI (b. 1983) lives and works between Berlin and Sofia. He is working in a wide variety of media, including objects, videos, and installations. Past solo exhibitions include That Moment The Coyote Falls From A Cliff, One Gallery, Sofia (2022), Urban Ecologies, E-Werk, Freiburg (2021), Sea Level, at Fabienne Levy gallery, Lausanne (2020), Never Mind The Gap, Joey Ramone, Rotterdam (2017); and Update, GalerieKrinzinger, Vienna (2015). Group shows include OSTRALE, Dresden Biennial of Contemporary Art , Gods and Monsters, Kunstverein Familie Montez, Frankfurt, Brittle Power, Kunsthal 44 Moen, (2021) Places of Transition,frei_raum Q21, Museumsquartier Wien(2014); Balkon Zum Balkan, Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden, (2014), amongst many others.
The production of the artworks for this exhibition was made possible with the support of the Stiftung Kunstfonds.
