- Venue
- Neue Nationalgalerie Berlin
- Location
- Germany
JANNIS KOUNELLIS
THE LABYRINTH – A RETROSPECTIVE
With his latest installation of the labyrinth, as an environment for his retrospective at the Neue Nationalgallerie in Berlin, Jannis Kounellis has produced a remarkable piece of work.
The labyrinth complements the building by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe as much as the space seems to be made for this specific piece of work. The monochrome simplicity of this composition of art and architecture sensitises you for its visual sophistication and textural decadence.
Kounellis seems to have completely internalised Mies van der Rohe statements ‘Less is more' and ‘Good is in the details' and mixed the black of the gallery's' ceiling with the stone-white of the floor to create a symphony of metallic grey; grey, which appears to be neutral at first but then, reveals the full spectrum of colours. The blue shades of grey transform browns into bright oranges, the subtle greens turn pale pinks into reds, and ochre and beiges provoke blues to look purple. The textures used vary from soft felts and fabrics, scratchy sacks, rough stone, warm, worn down wood, fluffy cotton balls and wool, to cold steel and lead, oxidised bells, grains, powdered coffee and chunky, sparkly pieces of coal.
Being trained and still regarding himself as a painter, Kounellis has read the space as a canvas by physically familiarising himself with every corner of it. The uniqueness of the Neue Nationalgallerie's top floor is characterised by its openness, its lack of space defining walls. The ‘skin and bone' structure of steel and glass reduces the physical appearance to its absolute minimum and represents more of an idea of a building than actually providing it. Instead of creating a ‘white cube' as a neutral environment, Mies van der Rohe offers the city of Berlin as a social and historical background for the presented artwork and de-isolates it by setting it in relation with the life surrounding it.
The labyrinth is known as a tool of disorientation but seems to serve the opposite impression in this gallery space. The openness of the plan with its fragile glass structure and the almost oppressively hovering ceiling suddenly gains support through the steel panels of the labyrinth. Echoing the rectangular dimensions of the sheets of glass and repeating the shades of grey produced by the play of light reflected from the ground and ceiling, the labyrinth suddenly turns into the architectural centre of the building. Instead of just providing the necessary wall space for Kounellis' wall pieces the structure becomes part of a closed system. It divides the space into three sections: the outside of the gallery with the open square, the space between gallery and labyrinth and the centre inside. This division resolves the tension of the huge single space and gives the impression of balance, almost tranquility. The middle area suddenly turns into a space of transition; locates you between two facing mirrors. One shows the outside world through the distancing glass membrane and the other one, the opaque metal surface of the labyrinth, reflects nothing but the daylight, representing the passing time. You understand that in this gap, this space of transition, you can clear your mind, concentrate on yourself and become self-aware, before you enter the actual labyrinth to relate yourself to the pieces of art. The objects in this gap seem like a test, which allow you to level yourself to get used to the formal language of Kounellis' work. It is a ‘no man's land', this space: You are inside but outside; it is like a check-point, a place where you have to proof your identity, where you have to make the decision on which side of the wall you want to be; a decision which characterised Berlin for over twenty years. The centre, the labyrinth itself becomes an island, an exotic space with representations of other, past worlds.
The materials Kounellis uses represent his surroundings of the port of Pireaus (Athens), where he lived before he moved to Rome at the age of twenty. He doesn't build his installations but composes them like a still life painting. The way he drapes fabrics, assembles sacks of coal and even the sense of colour communicates a deep understanding and knowledge of the painting approach. Even the labyrinth's surface's patterns attest more to an abstract painting than a sculpture. Mies van der Rohe's statement ‘Each material is only worth what we make of it' remains very true when we look at Kounellis' choices. It is his sense of finding beauty in small things like a dead fly or an egg or acknowledging the emotional impact of a bare metal bed frame or a single burning candle, that show both his empathy and a critical or maybe radical approach. In the book Arte Povera Robert Lumley quotes Celant saying about Kounellis: "Kounellis opposed a ‘popular language of the senses' to the ‘elitist language of philosophy'. The spectator is not able to assume a posture of detached contemplation, but is placed in the middle of the work. … the animals are real animals, the raw wool is real wool." The impact of these materials takes us by surprise because we have lost access to the raw. Everything is processed, sealed and ready to use nowadays and we have turned into passive consumers who are manipulated by fashion and advertising. Even becoming aware of the environmental challenges and changing to a holistic lifestyle has become a trend rather than us understanding and internalising these advantages. We also tend to intellectualise and theorise rather than pay attention to our emotions. Intuition comes before intellect but we are taught to privilege the latter. The sensuality of material makes Kounellis' work accessible for those who want to grow, who want to re-access a (emotional) reality which is not prescribed by corporate but by personal identity.
We need artists and cultural practitioners like Kounellis who remind us that materials like wood, stone, coal and fire have been in the world for thousands of years and that it is our responsibility to provide them for the future. It is them, who remind us that we don't rule but only visit the world.
Anna Stippa
Level 2, BA (Hons) Fine Art, Nottingham Trent University
Bibliography
Books:
SCHNEIDER, A., DEAMGEN, A., ed., 2008. Jannis Kounellis. Ostfildern: Hatje Cantz Verlag
COTTER, S.,ed., 2004. Jannis Kounellis. Oxford: Modern Art Oxford
MOURE, G., 1990. Kounellis. Barcelona: Ediciones Poligrafa, S. A.
FUCHS, R., GACHNANG, J., MUNDICI, C., 1989: Jannis Kounellis. Rivoli: Castello di Rivoli, Museo d'arte contemporanea e l'autore
LUMLEY, R., 2004. Arte Povera. London: Tate Publishing Ltd.
CAROTTI, E.,ed., 2000. Arte Povera in collection. Milan: Edizioni Charta
JACOBSEN, K., ed., 2001: Zero to Infinity: Arte Povera 1962-1972. 1st ed. London: Tate Gallery Publishing Limeted
NEUMEYER, F., 1991. The Artless Word: Mies van der Rohe on the Building Art. Camebrige, Messachusetts: MIT Press
MERTINS, D., 1996. Presence of Mies. New York: Princeton Architectural Press: Accessed through: http://site.ebrary.com/lib/nottinghamtrent/Doc?id=10082400&ppg=112
