Louis von Adelsheim at MAC Quinta Normal, Chile

Santiago de Chile’s Quinta Normal Museum of Contemporary Art exhibits, since April 10 and through June 3, 13 video-installations, most of them unpublished, created by Swiss-German artist Louis von Adelsheim, covering the building’s 1,500 square meters.

Movimientos/Bewegungen was scheduled to be inaugurated back in March 2010, but the earthquake that took place on February 27 dramatically disrupted the plans. That’s the reason why its title is so symbolic. Von Adelsheimspent several months in Chile recording the ravages caused by the earthquake in the MAC’s two buildings. The material became a documentary, Borrar el terremoto, was screened in Art Basel 2010, and helped the museum to get resources for its restoration.

The relationship between this artist and Chile began during the 1980s. His friendship with psychiatrist Claudio Naranjo brought about, during the 1990s, two movies on Chilean sculptor Totila Albert. The first time he exhibited his work at MAC was in 2002: El finito multiplicado was a work with mirrors that repeated video images in a sort of kaleidoscope, and got a warm welcome among the audience.

The staging of Movimientos/Bewegungen speaks of the vast potential of video-art. The screenings occupy the space, play –again– with mirrors and the sensation of infinite, with multisensory experiences or interactive proposals, bringing us face to face with topics such as death, the consumption or student demonstrations. The sound is another significant element in the pieces, because silences and noises promptly set the environments created within the Museum.

Louis von Adelsheim (1953)is an audiovisual artist, painter, documentary maker and cameraman. His first video-art exhibitions were showcased during the 1980s in Bern, Colonia, Berlin and New York. The exhibition at MAC is sponsored by the embassies of Switzerland and Germany in Chile. Activities at the Goethe Institut and Chile’s University are simultaneously scheduled.

Source: Press release