zimoun creates a styrofoam blizzard in a swiss museum

zimoun creates a styrofoam blizzard within swiss museum
(above) ’36 ventilators, 4.7m³ packing chips, 2014′
motors, metal, styrofoam, nylon, wood, controlling system
installation view: art museum lugano, switzerland; curated by guido comis & cristina sonderegger
all images and video courtesy and © studio zimoun
all images courtesy of zimoun

continuing the trademark use of mechanical devices — and the bewildering visual and acoustic effects they inherently produce — bern-based studio zimoun presents ’36 ventilators, 4.7m³ packing chips’ at the art museum of lugano, switzerland. the installation fills the entirety of the space with thousands of styrofoam pieces, swirling them into a massive and immersive plastic blizzard. thirty-six ventilators — four situated in each window of the space — whirl the flakes into an continuous vortex of kinetic matter and, when lit at night by halogen spotlights, the scene recalls the swarming of insects in glass cases. ‘the artist’s installations evokes the disquieting frenzy of beehives or anthills and transfers to closed spaces the sum of perceptions we are used to finding only in nature, where the whish of the wind adds up to the trembling of leaves, to the ticking of the rain, to the gurgling of water.’ curators guido comis and cristina sonderegger explain ‘zimoun thus artificially recreates the chaos of nature in a laboratory.’

styrofoam flakes are mobilized by motorized fans

the swirling creates a blizzard of flakes

filling the space with plastic pieces

at the art museum of lugano, switzerland