Gravity, Be My Friend
Accelerator presents Gravity, Be My Friend, an exhibition by pioneering video artist Pipilotti Rist. Visitors are welcome to step into her dreamlike, immersive installations, which explore the body, desire, and gender with humour, poetry, and technological innovation. Rist’s intimate yet monumental works invite you to be enveloped by the art and to become part of it.
Pipilotti Rist, video still 'Gravity, Be My Friend', 2007.
About the exhibition
The exhibition Gravity, Be My Friend features two works by Pipilotti Rist that differ primarily in size. One of the works fills an entire gallery at Accelerator, which can accommodate over 100 people. The other work is not much bigger than a stamp and can be found in Accelerator’s restaurant, just a few steps up the stairs behind the café counter. The two works demonstrate Rist’s wide-ranging experimentation with different formats for moving images, spatial interventions, and viewing positions. In her works, she combines footage of nature with human elements, often using the body as a means of expression. She explores themes such as identity, perception and power, viewing vulnerability as a creative resource in her effort to question humanity’s self-image and self-proclaimed status. Rist values what we experience with our eyes closed, such as our dreams, as highly as what we experience with our eyes open. She sees her works as proposals for emotions expressed through images, and she hopes that the collective experience of an exhibition will allow visitors the chance to feel less lonely. At Accelerator, the exhibition becomes a space where this offer is extended.
Works in the exhibition
Gravity, Be My Friend, 2007
While creating Gravity, Be My Friend, Rist’s artistic investigations centred on how we experience moving images when lying down. In this position, the muscles are more relaxed, which in turn affects how we think, see, and feel. She worked with situations that, in her words, “should foster a certain mildness towards oneself”.
On the occasion of Pipilotti Rist’s first solo exhibition in Scandinavia at Magasin III Museum of Contemporary Art, the book Congratulations! was published. In it, Rist describes Gravity, Be My Friend as “the fantasy of living beyond gender difference and simulates a dissolution into water, air and atoms.” The book is available for purchase at Accelerator’s entrance desk.
Selbstlos im Lavabad (Selfless in the Bath of Lava), 1994
“I am a worm, and you are a flower! You would have done everything better,” shouts the character in the work as she looks up at the viewer. Portrayed by Rist herself, she is surrounded by fire and lava reminiscent of a Christian image of hell. The artist wishes that those who look down on this trapped figure will feel compelled to help her. Throughout her practice, Rist often returns to the idea that art might make us more willing to forgive ourselves and others.
About Pipilotti Rist
Pipilotti Rist (b. 1962) is a prominent artist in the field of spatial video art. Since the mid-1980s, she has been a central figure on the international art scene. Her art evolves alongside new technology and is characterised by vivid colours, experimental editing and the integration of sound and image.
Pipilotti Rist lives and works in Zurich. She has had solo exhibitions at institutions such as MoMA New York, The Geffen Contemporary and Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles, The National Museum of Modern Art Kyoto, Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Louisiana Museum Humlebæk, Fondazione Prada Milano, UCCA Centre for Contemporary Art, Beijing, Magasin III Museum of Contemporary Art, among others. She has participated in numerous group exhibitions and biennials, such as those in Venice, Istanbul, Santa Fe, Shanghai, and São Paolo.
Credits
Curator: Richard Julin
Thanks to Magasin III Museum for Contemporary Art, Pipilotti Rist and Atelier Rist Sisters: Nike Dreyer and Dave Lang.
Gravity, Be My Friend, 2007
Concept, directing, editing, camera, production: Pipilotti Rist
Cast: Ewelina Guzik, David Göldi
Music and sound: Anders Guggisberg, Pipilotti Rist
Assistant director: Chris Miemeyer
Camera: Pierre Mennel
Editing and technique: Davide Legittimo
Underwater light: Sepp von Arx – Leuchtturm
Shooting production: Plan B, HC Vogel, Chris Niemeyer
Shooting assistants: Johanna Lietha, Effie Wu
Thanks to: Bestattungsamt Zürich (Frau Herold, Frau Bucher, Herr Zuber), Gemeinde Diepoldsau, Verein Alpenhof, Tinu Balmer
Architecture and installation: Markus Huber Recabarren
Architecture assistants: Dave Lang, Florido Giunchi
Studio manager: Rachele Giudici
Assistance studio manager: Linda Zimmermann
Produced by: Hauser & Wirth Zürich London (Cornelia Providoli, Karinka Seinsoth) and Atelier Rist Sisters.
Gravity, Be My Friend was originally created for Pipilotti Rist’s first solo exhibition in Scandinavia at Magasin III Museum for Contemporary Art in 2007. The piece is part of Magasin III’s collection.
Selbslos im Lavabad, 1994
Directing, editing, camera, cast: Pipilotti Rist
Thanks to: Peter Bräker
Support: Diego Stampa
Courtesy of: the Artist, Hauser & Wirth, Luhring Augustine
Copyright: Pipilotti Rist
With support from:
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