Kyrill Koval

Radical construction sites - the new answers of the material

21 May - 24 July 2011

Opening on May 20 at 8 pm - Introduction: Kai von Keitz, Cologne

There is something of objectivity in the naked identity of a material. Donald Judd, "Specific Objects", 1964. You see them everywhere, these pits, holes, skeletons of scaffolding parts, props and armature bars. Understanding these places as art material and, through "recontextualization", placing them in a different spatial and philosophical framework is a central theme of his artistic work in recent years.
Building containers are ubiquitous in the modern cityscape, stretching hundreds of meters along roadsides and industrial areas. Painted in RAL colours, they form a precise, monumental construction. At the same time, as industrial mass products and due to their function in a certain rhythm, these bodies are absolutely neutral, but have the ability to change the space surrounding them in a specific way.
The references to Minimal Art and Constructivism of the 1920s as well as to his teachers Gerhard Merz and David Rabinowitch are clearly recognizable in Koval's works. The high degree of abstraction in his works refers to the increasing facelessness of modern urban space all over the world, where characteristic features are increasingly utilised and repressed and overlaid with shaped visual elements that can be read globally.

Edition 2011: Bleed 2011. pigment print on Dibont; 28 x 80 cm / 350 Euro

Dates 
Sunday, 17 July 2011, at 11.30 a.m.: Lecture by Herman Bessels (architect from the Netherlands) on contemporary industrial architecture.  Followed by a discussion between Kyrill Koval, Herman Bessels and the audience.
Sunday, July 24, 2011, at 6 p.m.: Finissage with a reading by Reinhard Prüllage, Nordhorn.

Supported by the Ministry of Science and Culture of Lower Saxony
and by the joint municipality of Neuenhaus