Alexander Arotin

Alexander Arotin

Alexander Arotin (born 20 April 1970 in Vienna) is an Austrian visual artist, director and designer currently based in Barcelona, Paris, Berlin and Venice.

Arotin studied composition and piano at the University of Music and Dramatic Arts in Vienna at 16 and in 1994 earned a diploma on Beckett from the University of Applied Arts Vienna.

Notable works BLACKLIGHT and MUTESPACE have been shown at TEFAF Fine Art Fair in Maastricht 2012 and in occasion of the Art Brussels at Galerie Flore Brussels in 2012.

AROTIN & SERGHEI "Mutespace 1"
intermedial painting 141x136 cm
exhibition at TEFAF Maastricht 2012

In cooperation with the Ircam Centre Pompidou Paris, he developed his intermedial art creation "Bing!"

His work includes a representation of García Lorca's Amor de Don Perlimpín con Belisa en su jardín in the 1992 Salzburg Festival, and a theatrical inauguration event at the Stadthaus Ulm inspired by Beckett's Happy Days, Traces Installation at Macba Museum of Contemporary Art in Barcelona. non-lieu installation for Beckett's Waiting for Godot with Hans Christian Rudolph, Sebastian Mirow, Karl Merkatz, and Philipp Sebastian, and music by Olga Neuwirth.

Alexander Arotin is publishing his art creations since 2011 together with his russian collaborator as an artist duo under the name AROTIN & SERGHEI.

AROTIN & SERGHEI at 50th Biennale di Venezia

The artistic work of AROTIN & SERGHEI often surpass and divert usual forms of representation integrating elements of other artistic and technical languages. They are using elements of architecture, of musical composition, of scientific measurement and release techniques, of photographic, video, and texts, in form of fragmented citations in an extreme esthetic reduction and ambiguity.

The position and distance of the viewer to the object and the vanishing point of perspective is often changed, modified and exaggerated. In this way the human body, actor or spectator, takes sometimes a central part of the installations. This multimedial and theatral approach of visuality was described in the thesis of Stefania Rossa: “Visualità e spazio nel teatro di Alexander Arotin” published in Università Ca Foscari, Venice 2005.

An other characteristic element in the art of AROTIN & SERGHEI is the creation and visualization of elements, that are often hidden by space, time and mind, such as “sounds of lines”, colors of “white screens” or “mute spaces”… AROTIN & SERGHEI are applying contemporary visualization techniques on existential questionings, reflecting past, present and future in their work. Color, light and linear symbols appear in the work of AROTIN & SERGHEI as pure substances, in a contemporary continuation and translation of the work of Malevich, Rothko, Richter and James Turrell.

AROTIN & SERGHEI invented in 2004 the „space-screen system“, an architectonic expression of a giant monitor-screen permitting to the human body to get directly confronted with the „hermetic surface of illusion“. An electronic white line in extreme slow motion appears as the central element of the installation. This white line is rhythmically interrupted and creates the illusion of movement in a context of absolute immobility. The motive of a white line appears also in the installation TRACES at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Barcelona 2003 and as a steel line it was the base of the HAPPY DAYS installation 1994 for the inauguration of the Richard Meiers Museum Stadthaus Ulm, in Germany.

An other important Leitmotiv in the work of AROTIN & SERGHEI is the electric blue color. It was the basic element of the inaugurational installation for the Museumsquartier Vienna (2001), in the KANDINSKY installation at Fondazione Mazzotta in Milan (2003), in GODOT (2005) and in appears in many variations and in a special intensity in the WHITE SCREEN series (2010-11).

AROTIN & SERGHEI "Whitescreen 1"
intermedial painting 156 x 96 cm
exhibition at Galerie Flore Brussels in occasion of ART BRUSSELS 2012

Activity sectors

- Visual Art (painting, drawing, installation, photography, video, sculpture/objects, performance)

- Music (composition, montage and mixing)

- Film (direction, montage, camera)

- Music Theatre (conception, production, direction, design for set, costumes, video & light)

- Teaching – theoretical and practical classes & seminaries to develop creativity “FREE SPACE” (University of Luxemburg)

Selected solo exhibitions and art creations

2012

Galerie FLORE Brussels - exhibition in occasion of ART BRUSSELS 2012

BLACK LIGHT ink on handmade paper (2011-12)

GOLDEN POINT intermedial painting (2011-12)

MUTE SPACE intermedial painting (2006-12)

WHITE POINT intermedial painting (2010-12)

exhibition at The 25th European Fine Arts Fair TEFAF MAASTRICHT 2012

MUTESPACE 1 , BLACKLIGHT 8 & 11

2011

WHITE SCREEN compositions intermedial painting - Exhibition Bruxelles April 2012

2010

WHITESCREEN, installation , i.p. Berlin

FREE SPACE, inter-medial project, in cooperation with the University of Luxembourg

SELFPORTRAIT 2010, computercollage

INTERMEDIAL PAINTINGS, n.e.

2009

MUTE SPACE

SOUNDSPACE, 6 guaches, private collection Genève

>PLAYBING! (installation version )

2008

BING! SYSTEMS (version 2) intermedial art installation, in cooperation with Ircam - Centre Pompidou Paris

WHITE ILLUSIONS, 3 short films , Medici/Firenze, Fortuny/Venezia, Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes/S.Petersbourg in cooperation with Isabelle de Borchgrave, Bruxelles Presentation Musée du cinema Bruxelles 50, film in 2 parts, 1st viewing Chateau des Bois , Genève, private collection.

2007

BING! , (version 1) intermedial paintings, scores & art installation, in cooperation with Ircam - Centre Pompidou Paris

VUE INONDEE, art installation, private collection, Bruxelles

2006

M, video installation, videostills - n.e.

SPEAKING HEAD, video installation, videostills - n.e.

NON-LIEU, 12 videostills, private collections in Belgium, Germany and AROTIN ART PROJECTS BERLIN, art gallery project

2005

NON-LIEU, art installation , work in progress, first presented at the performances of Waiting for Godot in Klagenfurt Austria visualità e spazio nel teatro die Alexander Arotin da Stefania Rossa, Ca Foscari, Venice

2004

SPACE SCREEN, art installation, work in progress, first presented at the performances of Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett in Klagenfurt Austria

MANIPULATED SPACE, art installation, intermedial paintings, exposed in AROTIN ART PROJECTS BERLIN

2003

TRACES, art installation, Macba- Museu d’Art Contemporany de Barcelona SELFPORTRAIT 2003, Barcelona

External links

• AROTIN & SERGHEI