Being, Vitruvian, curated by Marita Batna and Michael Morgan, is the
first of two exhibitions encompassing the visual narrative of Daniela
Bertol’s creative research
Form Mind Body Space Time, where practices of
"making" intersect practices of “moving”. “Making movement” is inspired
by geometric configurations which are also archetypical shapes and
symbols in several cultures and are deeply embedded in the human psyche.
The
title expresses the search for harmony in geometry present in Vitruvius
where the proportions of architectural space are also related to the
human body (15 BC). Vitruvius’ theory on proportions is one of the most
famous Western examples of explorations on the harmony of the human body
in relation to geometry. Leonardo da Vinci illustrated this theory in
his iconic drawing Vitruvian Man (c. 1490) which maps the human figure
to regular geometric shapes. Rudolf Laban (1879-1958) initiated his
theories on human movement from these ancient explorations expanding the
harmony of the human body to the harmony of movement and extending the
two-dimensional symmetry in the plane to the three-dimensional symmetry
of the Platonic solids.
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Being, Vitruvian departs from such
historical precedents using the classical iconography from these
timeless theories in a contemporary digital framework. The symmetry of
the five Platonic solids is explored with computational models and 3D
printing in a dialogue between the digital virtual world and its
physical counterpart. The Platonic solids become a ‘movement
infrastructure’ used by Bertol in her psychosomatic practices: movement
sequences are inscribed into the solids whose geometric properties are
used not only as framework but also as source of inspiration. The
morphology of human movement and the manmade Platonic solids inscribing
movements are unified by geometry.
The form of movements also aims to
express the Vitruvian qualities of
firmitas,
utilitas,
venustas: the
geometric body defines not only the aesthetic intention behind each
movement but also provides strength and balance. Movement is an
existential statement of a human subject’s presence in space. Geometry
facilitates the encounter between morphology and phenomenology,
transforming the Cartesian statement “Cogito ergo sum” (I think
therefore I am) into “I move therefore I am”. The awareness of movement
is realized in a geometric framework, where the human body expands into
the surrounding space defined by symmetry based properties.
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The
multiple media presented in the
Being, Vitruvian exhibition are also the
methods utlized in the research Form Mind Body Space Time: drawings,
digital models and 3D printing seemingly merge with performative actions
recorded with video and photography. Digital post-production emphasizes
the geometry of the movement sequences in a dialog between an imaginary
virtual world superimposed to video recording of physical movements
performed by Bertol during her daily practice. The exhibition is also
a statement of how art is a means of scientific exploration in both
video and built fabrications; the quantitative aspects of movement
sequences are analysed through the qualitative filter of abstracted
video visualizations and digital drawings.
The photographs below are installation views as well as virtual tour/walkthrough of the exhibition. The work is displayed in four interpenetrating rooms, which, similarly to the research content, can be categorised but also seaminglessly flow one into another to represent how multi-disciplinary content can become meta-disciplinary as the 'whole is greater than the sum of its parts'.
The atrium, site of the 'movement infrastructure', is room 0, the beginning of the loop.
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| Room 1: Title and Research Aims |
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Room 2: The Whole Is Greater Than The Sum of Its Parts
Menger Carpet,Thoughts, Aphorisms, Quote
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| Room 2-3: Parametric Geometry (digital models) |
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| Room 3: Geometry of the Human Body |
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Room 4: Making and Visualising
in the dialog between physical and digital, reality and its representation |
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| Room 0 (Atrium): 'Movement Infrastructure' |
