galerie laurent mueller

J'AI TENDU DES CORDES D'ÉTOILE À ÉTOILE

On the occasion of his first solo exhibition at the gallery, German artist Christof Zwiener has developed an installation around stretched threads. Zwiener works with the theme of memory connected to the body and its limits, both internal and external.. His interventions, sculptures and works are often minimalist and are based on historical and documentary research, in order to be able to formulate, through his pieces, historical and philosophical references which are often abstract. 

The central piece of the exhibition is the installation Castor and Pollux that explores in an extremely talented way the space of the gallery, anchoring itself to the walls of the place, as if groping for it. However in the middle, the threads that form the piece condense so as to form an exact image. The sensual and poetic image conveyed by the installation is deliberate because Zwiener wants to free himself from the weight generally associated with sculpture. 
Questioning the origin and provenance of culture since the time of our ancestors, the artist uses the mythological figure of the twin brothers Castor and Pollux, who have been represented many times in the history of art, whether as sculptures or paintings. Through their origin, the two Dioskouroi brothers represent divinity and immortality just as much as humanity and mortality. Their meaning is deeply rooted in our Western cultural history, going as far as to be associated with the Gemini constellation.

The horse is Castor and Pollux’s essential attribute; it is a ubiquitous animal in our culture, whether in art or in life, and both in past and modern times. In sculpture, horses have a special status; from equestrian sculptures to Maurizio Cattelan or Berlinde de Bruyckere’s horses. Here, Christof Zwiener chooses to represent the twins Castor and Pollux with two full-size horses. The symbol of the mythological image combined with the figure of the horse and the artist’s technique creates a link with contemporary Western society and offers an investigation of the origin of our culture. It seems that the piece shown is equally a symbol of the beginning and the end of time.