Hans Peter Kuhn: Helix talks

In November 2006, the German artist Hans Peter Kuhn (author of two solo exhibitions with e/static, in 2005 and 2008, as well as Advertising, a large 'light and sound' installation presented in the "Constellations" section of Artissima in 2005), was commissioned by a Turin collector to make an important - and almost unique in its kind, at least in Italy - permanent installation project with lights and sounds, Helix, which was inaugurated on the occasion of the inauguration of a newly renovated building in Via Reggio 27 in Turin. This was a very demanding work, which required lengthy planning, then its execution and set up placed in the stairwell of the building, presented still without the sound part, which was to have been part of the original project but its execution was postponed. Exactly 12 years after the first inauguration, thanks to the owner's desire and the enthusiastic availability of the artist, the now completed work will finally be presented to the public on the evening of Friday, November 2. So as of that evening "Helix will talk!", or rather, will emit its voice, with a composition of sounds created specifically by the artist. The work, which has also been subjected to a 'freshening up' of the entire lighting component, will appear to the viewers in a renewed form, although the marble frieze/support remains unchanged, with its elliptical development that runs along the entire stairway, interacting visually with lights and sounds.

Hans Peter Kuhn (born in Kiel and a long-time resident in Berlin) has been active for many years in the field of sound installations, or sound and light installations. He has created installations often of large format and in many cases permanent (the most recent one was set up on the roof of the Mattress Factory in Pittsburgh), in different places around the world: Berlin, New York, Adelaide, Paris, Odense, Bilbao, and Lyon, among many others. For decades, he also had a fundamental collaborative experience with the famous Robert Wilson, composing music and creating sound environments for his plays. In 1993, he was awarded the Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale, together with Robert Wilson, for the work “Memory/Lost”, for which he composed the sound and music part.