Draft:Arotin & Serghei

Arotin & Serghei (AROTIN & SERGHEI), a contemporary artist duo since 2010, based in Paris, Berlin, Vienna, and the South of France, they specialize in the development and creation of artistic concepts, multidisciplinary and protean intermedial installations, immersive compositions, sound art and paintings, integrating philosophical and scientific questions, notably quantum physics and astrophysics and create specific links with the architecture of emblematic places of large-scale achievements in public space. Their main project Infinite Screen describes both the macrocosm and the microcosm of our world, using screens as symbols, as portals to infinity. The project has been developed and presented at, among others, Ars Electronica, the Venice Biennale, the Fondation Beyeler, the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, Giverny, Kraftwerk Berlin, Ircam and the Centre Pompidou Paris.

Origins and studies

Alexander Arotin (born in1970 in Vienna, Austria) comes from a family of the former Austro-Hungarian monarchy tracing its roots back to Transylvania and the Persian Prince Zaccharian von Arotin who was adopted by Empress Maria Theresa of Austria and Emperor Joseph II, who were godfathers to his children. In his teenage years Alexander Arotin was particularly influenced by his two grandmothers, one a pianist and the other a singer, journalist and women's rights activist in the 1920s. He grew up between Vienna, his hometown, and Paris. Beginning his musical studies at the age of four, he made his stage debut at the Burgtheater in Vienna (in a role in Aristophanes' The Birds). At the age of sixteen, he studied piano, composition, music theory and conducting at the University of Music in Vienna, attended masterclasses at the Centre Acanthe in France with the composer Luigi Nono and his experimental electroacoustic studio and attended Giorgio Strehler's Faust at the Piccolo Teatro Studio in Milan. Further studies at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna in Art, Direction and Scenography for Film and Theatre, among others with Axel Manthey, Klaus Zehelein gave him the opportunity to participate in workshops with Bob Wilson among other singular artistic personalities, and to realize his first large-scale installations. He developed new concepts of spatialization and image techniques that were the starting point for his collaboration with Serghei.

Serghei Victor Dubin, (born 1973 in Chișinău, Moldova, Romanian nationality) studied ballet from the age of five, as well as music and theater, as well as journalism, language etymology, metaphysics, art history and archaeology in Kishinev, Moscow, Montpellier and Vienna. Serghei's homeland, the region of Moldova, is a cultural fusion zone of ancient Thracian, Dacian, Roman and Greek culture, located at the crossroads of Romania, Ukraine, Poland and former Great Russia, and the Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian Empires. The Serghei family, originally from St. Petersburg and Krakow, took refuge from the Russian revolutions of the last century, in the south of the Tsarist Empire, in Bessarabia. Serghei combines his passions for art, history and philosophy by experimenting with different artistic fields, as an exhibition curator and artistic director.

Artistic beginnings and meeting

The two artists met in 1994 in Vienna to collaborate on the presentation of their Happy Day Balance, a kinetic installation originally built by Alexander Arotin for the inauguration of the Stadthaus Ulm in Germany as a tribute to Samuel Beckett, and inspired by his iconic play Les Beaux Jours in which an infinite plain and sky meet in the distance in a line. The entire construction, an installation over six meters high, was designed to rotate 360° around its own axis in a state of permanent imbalance, while two protagonists intervened on the wings. However, during rehearsals, the actors initially engaged became dizzy and canceled their participation. Undeterred, and with an optimism that would later be characteristic of the duo, Arotin chose Serghei as co-performer and performed the performance himself.

A year later, the two artists found themselves coordinating hundreds of singers at the Moldovan State Opera for the premiere of Requiem per il teatro, conceived to be performed with Verdi’s Requiem. Such ambitious projects perfectly demonstrate the flexibility these artists are capable of and the osmosis between mediums, as between art and life. Their cooperation eventually led to an ongoing collaboration, a process of collaboration and artistic experimentation based on the common desire to explore spaces both real and fictional, ranging from the mythological to the digital plains of the future.

In 1994, the duo founded their first production platform for intermedial art projects "Arotin Art Edition" in Paris. Constantly on the move, they are the embodiment of European bohemia, traveling with their projects between Berlin, Paris, London, Geneva, Vienna, Venice, Milan, Barcelona, ​​Brussels, Gstaad and their studio in the south of France.

Their diverse abilities are often manifested in collaborations with contemporary composers or in large-scale visual installations combined with orchestral performances or sound installations. The deconstruction of space remains a major theme in their work, as evidenced by the development of the installation Non-Lieu / Manipulated Space for a spectacular production of Waiting for Godot. In this installation, the two artists imagined one of the first video mappings ever made, allowing a human being to physically enter a multidimensional virtual reality, an installation in the form of an 8-meter-high laptop installed on stage. The sound for this installation was produced by the artists in collaboration with composer Olga Neuwirth. Samuel Beckett's famous "endless street" becomes in this installation an intermedial pictorial composition in which the artists compose, assemble and manipulate visual signals and sonic layers, a space in infinite transformation, predecessor to the idea of ​​sound, space and visualization of Infinite Screen.

Shared creations

Since 2010, the two artists have been performing internationally exclusively together as a duo, under the artist name AROTIN & SERGHEI. From the beginning of their collaboration, they have been researching and creating together a universe of color and light in constant metamorphosis, superposition and fusion. They are part of the European Platform for Digital Humanism, are co-initiators of the Ars Electronica Gallery Spaces, have organized seminars and conferences on the development of creativity in a multidisciplinary context at the University of Luxembourg, they were artist representatives for The State of Fine Art – international symposium at the European Parliament in Brussels, initiator of the exhibition and conference cycle Metamorphosis – Art & Innovation, and are very involved with artists' copyright organizations in Europe.

Since 2012 Arotin & Serghei have been developing their main project Infinite Screen in collaboration with major art institutions across Europe, starting with the Light Cells at Ars Electronica and the Venice Biennale, up to their giant installations in public space, such as the 1200 m2 Tower of Babel at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, Impression – Dialogues with Monet in Giverny and the Infinite Columns of Light in homage to Constantin Brancusi along the Ircam in front of the Centre Pompidou Paris in 2021.

This installation fascinates me, not only because it is beautiful and because it is interesting, but because for me it symbolizes something very powerful, it symbolizes what the Centre Pompidou wants to be – a multidisciplinary ensemble – it is for me the resurrection of the initial spirit of the Centre Pompidou.

From the installations inside and in front of the Centre Pompidou, as well as with the exhibition of the giant installations Infinite Screen / Constellations of The Future and Apokatastasis on the 10,000 m2 of the Kraftwerk in Berlin in 2023, Arotin & Serghei are trying to democratize Art and make artistic freedom accessible to all. The artists create a dialogue with major scientific institutions, such as the Galileo Galilei Institute and ALMA, the largest international astrophysics platform in the world, and develop their vision of a Way of Light installation imagined for public space, transferring the astrophysical calculations of the origins of the universe into a visible Infinite Image capable of changing points of view and increasing perspectives in society.

Arotin & Serghei bring the fundamental humanist idea of ​​the Renaissance, the expansion of space and thought, to our time. Abstract forms are projected in a perspective structure onto a wall. The vanishing point becomes the place where this screen opens. The wall collapses under the illusion of infinity. (...) And this, as Arotin reminded me during the rehearsal, in a world where we believed that our attitude had changed, willing to destroy walls, then suddenly waking up, find ourselves erecting them again. This means for me: living contemporaneity, (...) as an artist, but also as conscious citizens of the world.

Works

Intermedial painting

With the cycles on red, green and blue light cells, Arotin & Serghei create intermedial paintings on the DNA of today's visual language, opening new fields of vision and new horizons in the art world and in society.

Arotin & Serghei use the term "inter-medial" not only to describe the combinations and relationships between different media, but the term also symbolizes for them the independence of an idea from media, and from a specific medium used for a materialization.

The works from the Infinite Screen cycle were first presented at Tefaf in Maastricht in 2012, followed by exhibitions at Ars Electronica, Artcurial and Espace Muraille in Geneva. For the exhibition Metamorphosis, presented at the Palais Schönborn Batthany of Galerie W&K - Wienerroither & Kohlbacher in Vienna in 2018, the duo created a new work under the name Metamorphosis 01, as well as a six-part presentation, performance and discussion cycle that explores the transformation and innovation of characters, form and content in art.

Intermedial and multidisciplinary facilities

Arotin & Serghei's large-scale installations have been realized in cooperation with the world's leading art institutions. Starting in 2013, Infinite Screen was expanded and presented in an interdisciplinary manner as a commissioned work by the Venice Biennale and the Wiener Konzerthaus in collaboration with the Klangforum Wien.

In 2016, Infinite Screen was installed by the artists as a 1,200 m² installation on the main façade of the museum at Maria-Theresien-Platz for one month as part of a project marking the 125th anniversary of the Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna in collaboration with Artcurial, Museum in Progress and Ars Electronica presented a constantly evolving image and sound composition.

The art installation was then developed for the Fondation Beyeler (2016) and for the Ars Electronica festivals 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, as well as at the Monet Festival Impression in Giverny (2018) and at Guerlain / Fiac Paris (2018).

In 2019, the first 12-meter-high version of the Infinite Column of Light was exhibited as a major work of the 40th anniversary exhibition of Ars Electronica at the Ars Electronica Center, Museum of the Future.

In 2021, two complementary media installations from the Infinite Screen cycle were presented at the Centre Pompidou in Paris as part of the Manifeste-2021 festival, which connect the different sections of the art and culture center such as architecture, fine arts and the sound universe of Ircam-Centre Pompidou, and on Works from the collection, such as Malevich's Black Square, to Kandinsky's concept of synesthesia and Brancusi's infinite columns: Infinite Light Columns / Constellations Of The Future 1-4, an installation of 4 columns of light cells on the square in front of the museum along the Ircam-Centre Pompidou, as well as Vertigo / Infinite Screen, a visual composition on 18 screens in the great hall of the Centre Pompidou.

In 2023, Infinite Screen was presented at Kraftwerk Berlin as a 12,000 m² solo exhibition during the Gallery Weekend. An immersive, "supraliminal" exhibition with 5 monumental installations: in the lower area, three intermedia images from the Truth Possibilities cycle dedicated to Ludwig Wittgenstein, the digital image composition Infinite Time Machine and Constellations of The Future, a labyrinth of light columns made of monitors stacked on top of each other. The huge pillared hall on the upper floor was crossed by the main installation Apokatastasis, a 100m long line generated from LED panels, with a 14-channel sound installation around the theme of post-apocalyptic reset.

"In their works, Arotin & Serghei create a universe of colours and light, which is constantly metamorphosed by superposition, fusion and doubling. In this process of transformation, concepts from philosophy and science are taken up and condensed into visual and sound compositions. The fundamental questioning of the 'possibilities of truth'" (Ludwig Wittgenstein: Tractatus Logico Philosophicus 4.3) allows the artists to create a variety of large-scale artworks, images, drawings and installations, analogue and digital unique pieces

Exhibitions

• Infinite Screen / Apokatastasis, Kraftwerk Berlin, 2023
• Infinite Screen / Constellations du futur 5-11, Kraftwerk Berlin, 2023
• Colonnes de Lumière Infinies / Constellations du Futur 1-4, hommage à Brancusi, Ircam - Centre Pompidou, 2021
• Infinite Screen / Vertigo, installation intermédiale pour 18 écrans, hommage à Hitchcock, Centre Pompidou, 2021 (coproduction Klangforum, WDR, Wiener Konzerthaus, Wien Modern )
• Colonne de Lumière Infinie 01. Kunsthalle de Vienne et Ars Electronica Center 2019
• Impressions - Dialogue avec Monet (Infinite Screen). Festival des Arts de Vernon-Giverny, 2019
• Metamorphosis. W&K – Wienerroither & Kohlbacher, Vienne 2018
• Infinite Time Machine. Galerie Espace Muraille, Genève 2017
• Logical Structure Of Color. Festival Ars Electronica, Gallery Spaces, Linz 2017
• Impulsions lumineuses. Galerie Espace Muraille, Genève 2016
• Prométhée / White Point (Écran Infini). Fondation Beyeler, Bâle 2016
• Infinite Screen/ La Tour de Babel. Musée d'histoire de l'art, Vienne 2016
• Infinite Screen / Mantegna. La Biennale de Venise, Arsenale / Teatro Alle Tese, Venise 2015
• Infinite Screen / Tout ce que nous voyons pourrait aussi être autrement. (Wittgenstein), Festival Ars Electronica, Brucknerhaus, Linz, 2014
• Infinite Screen / Mantegna. Konzerthaus Wien, Vienne 2013
• Infinite Screen / Mute Space, Galerie Flore, TEFAF, Maastricht, 2012

Literature

• AROTIN & SERGHEI : Infinite Screen, Hatje Cantz, 2023, ISBN 978-3-7757-4545-1
• W&K – Wienerroither & Kohlbacher : Arotin & Serghei, Métamorphose. Édition W&K, Vienne 2018, ISBN 978-3-200-05798-2 ( issuu.com ).
• AROTIN & SERGHEI : Colonne de Lumière Infinie. Dans : Gerfried Stocker, Christine Schöpf, Hannes Leopoldseder : Out of the Box, The Midlife Crisis of the Digital Revolution. ( Ars Électronique 2019). Hatje Cantz, 2019, ISBN 978-3-7757-4576-5, p.
• Grazia D'Arienzo : Rimediare lo spazio beckettiano. "En attendant Godot" d'Alexandre Arotin. Dans : Arti dello Spettacolo/Performing Arts. année III, n. 3, 2017, pp. 40-48, ISSN 2421-2679 .
• Gerfried Stocker, Christine Schöpf, Hannes Leopoldseder : Radical Atoms et les alchimistes de notre temps. (Ars Électronique 2019). Hatje Cantz, 2019, ISBN 978-3-7757-4193-4, pages 22, 328, 382.
• Paula Watzl : Arotin & Serghei, Métamorphose. Dans : magazine d'art. Non. 1, 2018, p. 140-141. (Parnasse)
• Flore de Brantes : Arotin & Serghei. Catalogue. TEFAF, Maastricht 2012.
• Bertrand Saint Vincent : Giverny en voit de toutes les couleurs. Dans : Le Figaro . 25 juin 2019.
• Caroline Messensee : Arotin & Serghei. Machine à voyager dans le temps infini. Guerlain / Fiac, 2018, p.10, couverture.
• Benedikt Sarreiter : Dans les interfaces, Arotin & Serghei, White Point. Dans : Vous, Le Magazine de la Culture. N° 875, 2016, ISBN 978-3-905931-73-0, p.
• Paulo Baratta, Ivan Fedele : Il suono della memoria. La Biennale de Venise . 59. Festival Internationale de Musique Contemporanée, 2015, pp. 6, 22-25.
• Hannes Leopoldseder, Gerfried Stocker, Christine Schöpf : ... Ce qu'il faut pour changer. (Ars Électronique 2014). Hatje Cantz, 2014, ISBN 978-3-7757-3849-1, pp. 184-187, 262.

Internet links

• Site du duo d'artistes : arotinserghei.com
• Site Internet de l'exposition chez W&K – Wienerroither & Kohlbacher
• Exposition INFINITE SCREEN – La Tour de Babel : khm.at