Rolf Julius: Penombra

On Thursday 14th April Rolf Julius will open an exhibition of new works conceived specifically for the space at e/static. Exactly four years after his first solo show here, the German artist (whose works have been displayed in the section Ecoute, at the important exhibition Sons et lumières, which took place at the Centre Pompidou last autumn) returns to Turin with quite a different project. As the title reveals, a twilight atmosphere will predominate. Perhaps in order to more clearly emphasize the sounds emanating from the works, Julius will immerse the space in a half-light, alleviated only by the faint emissions from some TV screens. In turn, the screens will project fleeting images, like visions half left in the mind from a dream after waking.
Shadows suggest a place of silence and seclusion, a temporary (even discrete and welcoming) shelter from the crude and somewhat aggressive starkness of reality that one is forced to engage with. A place, that is, in which it is easier and more pleasant to listen, both to surroundings and to oneself.
On this occasion, the quality of soundscape that one finds in all the installations of this important and very original artist (who is a master at establishing unusual and yet perfect relationships between sound and image, and again between these and the space in which they are found) may reach levels of even greater purity and precision. That is, it may become clearer within the shadow.

Rolf Julius has been active for some time in an international field of artistic research that includes a range of artists of the highest level: John Cage, above all, as well as Christina Kubisch, Max Neuhaus, Terry Fox, Takehisha Kosugi, Hans Peter Kuhn, and Akio Suzuki. His works have appeared in important museums and institutions throughout the world (including the Pompidou in Paris, the PS1 in New York, the Hamburger Banhof in Berlino, the Mattress Factory in Pittsburgh, the Fridericianum of Kassel) and he has recently received much attention for his participation in the important collective "Light Sculpture" at Mulino 503 in Vicenza.