Larger than Love at Art Campus at the Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin

Art Campus at the Hamburger Bahnhof Berlin, Germany

04/25/12 – 05/12/12

An official collateral event of the Berlin Biennale, Larger than Love is a collaboration of the acclaimed artists Shony Rivnay (http://www.shonyrivnay.com/) and Lindsay Compton curated by Tim Goossens. At the heart of the exhibition is Shony Rivnay's monumental cloud-shaped installation Ehevuni -- a floating sculpture filled with air that nearly completely fills the vast space of the gallery. The surface of the fabric is entirely covered with the handwriting of the artist. Executed in the course of multiple months in his Tel Aviv studio, the work displays various sizes and repetitive patterns of the same Hebrew word.

Ehevuni can be translated as “you must love me”, a request that nears demand. The obsessive repetition of the word rendered in an intricate and precise format such as calligraphy, addresses the artist's need for embrace and acceptance both professionally and in his personal life.

Little by little we learn that there is a fine balance between daring to take up space and being too overwhelming. Ehevuni conveys a delicate dance amongst both ideologies and the artist’s plight between the two.

Larger than Love also features an immersive sound-installation created by Lindsay Compton titled Plural. Its hypnotic and haunting nature is a direct response to the compulsive message of Rivnay’s sculpture. Created by Compton in close collaboration with Min-U Kang and Jacques Gauron (sound engineers), Marlon Beatt (sound assistant), in various state-of-the-art sound- studios in Paris and Berlin, the visitor will discover different layers of the sound piece while making a journey around the sculpture.

As in other works of this inter-disciplinary artist, there is a strong emphasis on the multi-layered dimension to Plural. The entire installation is comprised of a combination of sounds of moaning, voices and scratching, played at various sound levels from suspended speakers. Just as the sculpture engulfs excessive amounts of the gallery space, Compton’s audio environment imposes itself onto the visitor. Both of which are discovered in time while moving through the space.

About the Artists

Shony Rivnay (b. Israel. Lives and works in Tel Aviv) is an inter–disciplinary artist working in various media, including sculpture, painting and video with a long–standing exhibition practice. Solo exhibitions include Tavi Dresdner Gallery, Tel Aviv (2008, 2010) and participated in numerous group exhibitions worldwide including With Justice in His Art He Will live, Underground Prisoners Museum (2008). My own Body, Art in Israel, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Tel Aviv (2010), Groupshow, Center of Contemporary Art, Tel- Aviv (2010), Mapping VIII, a collateral event of the 54th Venice Biennale (2011), He was commissioned a special project for Message in a Bottle, Exterritory Art Project, Cyprus (2010) and was invited to a HomeBase residency in Berlin (2011–2012)

Lindsay Compton (b. France. Lives and works in Berlin) is an artist based in Berlin, working in various media including painting, collages and sound installations he exhibits internationally. Solo exhibitions include SKIES, XXX, Tokyo (1999), Dwight Hackett Projects, Santa Fe, NM (2004-05) and STILL, ArtBar71, Berlin (2009). He was included is various group-exhibitions, including Facing the Millennium (in collaboration with UNESCO), Contemporary Museums of Art of Brasilia, Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo (1998-2000), SCOPE Committee for Emerging Art, curated by Andree Putman, Robert Longo, Bill T. Jones, Philip Glass, John Waters, Lou Reed, Bob Wilson, Louise Bourgeois, New York City (2004), Abstractions, Dwight Haketts Projects, Santa Fe, NM (2005), Hamlet Syndrom, curated by Harald Kimpel, Museum of Marburger, Germany (2011)

About the Curator

Tim Goossens (b. Belgium. Lives and works in New York) holds a Masters in art history from Paris IV- Sorbonne and in museology from the Ecole du Louvre. He worked as an assistant-curator at MoMA PS1 until 2010. At the museum he has curated the group exhibition Between Spaces (2009), and collaborated on major exhibitions including Kenneth Anger (2009) and Greater New York (2010) and launched the acclaimed performance based series Saturday Sessions. As an independent curator he has curated exhibitions and participated on art committees for Club Monaco. He has organized solo exhibitions with David Foote (Armani Casa, New York, 2008), Jeremy Kost (Dactyl Foundation, New York 2009), Ellen Depoorter (Governor's Island, New York, 2009), Jeremy Kost and Daria Marchik (Kiev, Ukraine, 2009), and has curated the major Belgian group show Avec le Temps - In Temps (Robert Miller Gallery, New York, 2009) and RISD Expose (RISD, Providence, 2010). Until the end of 2011 he was the Creative Director of the new art initiative fordPROJECT on 57th street in New York City.

Artis: Agenda: Larger than Love at Art Campus at the Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin 4/13/12 11:17 PM

Shony Rivnay (http://www.shonyrivnay.com/)Hamburger Bahnhof (http://www.hamburgerbahnhof.de/text.php?id=94&lang=en)

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