Ugo Rondinone

Sommer Contemporary Art is happy to announce

the water is a poem
unwritten by the air
no. the earth is a poem
unwritten by the fire

an exhibition by Ugo Rondinone at the Petit Palais, Paris.

Ugo Rondinone’s exhibition at the Petit Palais comprises two ensembles of works enhanced by a new video installation. Revolving around human bodies in contact with the elements and nature, these works are in keeping with the multiple families of works produced by the artist since the late 1980s. Earth, sky, air, water and fire, associated with beings at rest or in movement, are invoked in the fulness of their spiritual dimension.

From one ensemble to the next visitors witness a process of bodies in mutation: moving from the ethereal suspension of humansky to the quasi-lethargy of the nudes, the bodies are «reborn» in the film burn to shine, whose presentation at the Petit Palais is a world premiere. The film is projected onto six screens inside a cylindrical space made of charred wood and forming a circle, a recurring geometric figure for the artist. The body is in movement here: 12 percussionists and 18 male and female dancers are gathered around a fire in the desert. Combining an ancestral trance from the Maghreb with the gestures of a contemporary dance conceived with the help of Franco-Moroccan choreographer Fouad Boussouf, they unite with nature from sunset until dawn, when the sun rises again.