In this film, artist Urs Fischer and his project manager Mario Winkler discuss the imposing LED-clad cube that is “Denominator” inside Gagosian gallery in Beverly Hills, where it was exhibited as a standalone piece between July and November of 2023. Twelve feet in all directions, this sleek object evokes the “primary forms” of Minimalism, while updating their formal asceticism with the imagistic surfeit that characterizes our times. Visitors to Donald Judd’s Chinati Foundation in Marfa are sternly advised to put away their cameras; the opposite spirit reigns here. Like a cellphone scaled up to gargantuan proportions, “Denominator” is a receiver and transmitter in one, continually scraping the informational ether and redistributing its yield as an endlessly mutating mosaic. Moving pictures—drawn from an ever-expanding reserve of television advertisements, spanning from the 1950s to today—dance across its four facing sides to an algorithmically guided choreography. Ultimately, however, this work is less concerned with the history of product promotion than the current stakes of representation writ large. Fischer analogizes his mass-media monolith to an inverted Sistine Chapel: “It doesn’t it doesn’t hold you; it kind of repulses you… you’re on the outside.” An original soundtrack by John McEntire, founding member of Tortoise and The Sea and Cake, complements the presentation of this literally epic endeavor.
Born in Zurich, Switzerland in 1973 and now residing mainly in Los Angeles, Urs Fischer is an artist who parlays the scrappy arsenal of twentieth century avant-gardism into monumental and audience-enthralling works of sculpture, installation, and video. He takes inspiration from the singular treasures enshrined in museums no less than the mass-produced coffee mugs and candles that grace their gift shops. Underwriting his practice is an abiding interest in the non-rarified and collectivistic aspects of art. For his 2013 survey exhibition at LAMOCA, for instance, Fischer transformed the entirety of The Geffen Temporary into a sprawling come-one-come-all clay-molding workshop, exhibiting the output of over 1500 participants alongside his own works. “Denominator,” too, amounts to an exercise in co-production, one that now reaches truly global and transhistorical dimensions. Fischer’s work has been featured in the Venice Biennale (2011), the New Museum in New York (2019), and the Jumex Foundation in Mexico City (2022), among many other notable venues. The artist is represented by Gagosian, Sadie Coles HQ, and Max Hetzler.
Mario Winkler is the founder of Mario Winkler Company GmbH, which specializes in the development and realization of technically challenging artworks. Winkler began assisting Urs Fischer in 2003, originally in the capacity of an art-handler. This artist, he states in the film, “was getting to the limit of what was possible in the gallery. So, I had to start to jump in organize these special needs in the gallery to make it happen for the openings.” Operating as a liaison between the artist’s studio and the industrial sector, Winkler has gone on to manage some of Fischer’s most ambitious projects— “Denominator,” a case in point.
Crew Credits –
Production:
SCI-Arc Channel Creator and Executive Producer – Hernán Díaz Alonso
SCI-Arc Channel Executive Producer – Reza Monahan
SCI-Arc Channel Creative Director – William Virgil
Segment Producer – Jan Tumlir
Director – Reza Monahan
Director of Photography – Carlos Bonachea
B Camera – Alex Waxenbaum
C Camera – JJ House
Sound Engineer – Carli Plute
Post-Production:
Story Producer – Jan Tumlir
Editors – Cal Crawford/Reza Monahan
Soundtrack by John McEntire
Additional Images Provided by the Artist and Gagosian Gallery. Photographs by Stefan Altenburger
©2024 SCI-Arc Channel
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