David Prytz's "Pinhole-Camera" is a sculpture in which LEDs and electrical and mechanical devices generate kinetic light movements in the room through a hole.
Felix Kiessling’s "Sound of Earth - Schumann Frequencies" involves a double bass reproducing sounds based on real-time data of Schumann frequencies, the phenomenon of electromagnetic waves of the earth's surface beyond the spectrum of human perception.

 

This event provides the opportunity to compare the two types of research developed in the projects and in the group exhibitions, displayed each time with new works. 

 

A particular symmetry that combines fullness with emptiness, interior with exterior, and universal with particular has been a recurring theme in Prytz and Kiessling’s research since their first two exhibitions.
In “Tabula rasa, again” presented in the exhibition “Literal” (2014-15) David Prytz builds a kinetic environment of interconnected elements, such as LED lights, minerals, fusions, and various building materials, giving life to a universe that itself moves forward.
In the exhibition “Vavilov” (2015) Felix Kiessling undertakes a boat journey to lower a weight tied to a 1200-meter rope until it reaches the top of the Vavilov underwater volcano at the centre of the Tyrrhenian Sea. In the gallery, he displays the only reel of rope with the suspended metal weight almost touching the floor, with a piece of rope coming out of the window echoing the action performed at sea.
The gallery exhibits a contrast in fullness and emptiness, reminiscent of the historical exhibitions by Klein, who showcased "Le Vide" and Arman, who presented "Le Plein”.
Furthermore, the pairing of Prytz and Kiessling's exhibitions also highlights a contrast in movement, with Prytz's kinetic art taking place within the space and Kiessling's art involving external action.
Prytz’s filled animated details space relates to Kiessling’s universal horizon.
Kiessling’s interest in working with vectors in space demonstrates his fascination with the forces of nature. In his works, a vector can be as light as a thread crossing a space, as heavy as a load dropped from above onto a metal plate, or as intangible as real-time information of a lightning discharge reproduced by light. Space is always a part of a larger space or a vaster temporality because it is confronted with forces and measurements greater than human capacity.
Prytz’s wire is entangled to support the force and bent to support the movement. It is subjected to tensions, reversals, and vibrations that reproduce the action and energy of nature and the cosmos in a literal mimesis.

 

In the group exhibition "Anatomy of Restlessness" (2016), Kiessling and Prytz displayed works that investigate the concept of time.
Kiessling's "Time Drawing" involves a piece of graphite attached to the hand of a clock, which records its passage on a cardboard base.
Prytz created the video work "Now, Diaspora," as well as two works based on the ephemerides calculated at the beginning and end of the exhibition. In "Now, Diaspora," sentences are spoken with apparent complete meaning typed in real-time, and then immediately deleted by the cursor.
Kiessling's "Time Drawing”, was exhibited also four years later in the group exhibition "Gathering the Unpredictable" (2020), alongside Prytz's "A Puzzle," a geometric drawing in eleven parts.
Through these works, the relationships with time and space reveal an intense approach to the two concepts, as if paradoxically they could not be explained in any other way than through their continuous process of being: time as a trace of present moments and space as a continuous measurement.

 

In the solo exhibition "Exocenter" (2017), David Prytz further explores his research on time and the cosmos, focusing on a centre outside of itself with sculptures such as "Sun without Moon" and "Moon without Sun," along with other unmapped events calculated in the surfaces of "Un/Chartered" and the audio work "In a minute, a thousand years".

 

In the group exhibition "Fire in the Mind" (2019), Kiessling presents "Earth Piercing ITA-CHI," a part of a series that connects two parts of the globe by piercing the Earth with two metal rods. The first pierce was created at the Palude di Torre Flavia Natural Monument in Italy, and the second at El Yeso in Chile.
Prytz introduces "Pinhole Camera" as an evolution of the "Dark Room" from the "Literal" exhibition. The previous work involved a dark room where "Many Suns", seen within the installation "Tabula Rasa, again”. The darkroom displayed in "Fire in the Mind" is a suspended sculpture, a prototype of the current one on display.
When observing Kiessling's "Earth Piercing" against the infinite horizon, we grasp the vastness of the entire global Earth surface and feel connected to that dimension.
The perception of the universe through Prytz's 'Pinhole camera' also works with another stereoscopic gaze in which a microscopic and a macroscopic vision resonates.

 

In the exhibition "Resonance" (2019), the second part of Kiessling's "Earth Piercing ITA-CHI" and a large-scale geometric drawing created by Prytz through the calculation of ephemerides were exhibited simultaneously. They both represent space-time actions and ongoing processes. The two "Earth Piercing" poles are not permanently united and do not claim to be a monument; they are primarily imaginative works. The ephemerides serve as a peg to create a basis for shaping a ground surface, giving the perception of something deeper.

 

In Kiessling's "Schmetterling (Biest)" ("In process: Felix Kiessling. Now Now Now", 2021), the manipulated light in the gallery is connected in real-time to meteorological data and switches on whenever lightning is recorded on Earth, resulting in continuous flickering. 
This conceptual work makes the functioning of the usually hidden technology visible through manipulation, highlighting the flickering glitch. 
On the other hand, Prytz's "Pinhole Camera" reveals the internal technology of a dark object while the functioning of the lights is visible on the outside. 

 

"Schmetterling (Biest)" was later re-exhibited in the "Narrative Pieces" (2023) exhibition in close relation to a heliogravure by Prytz. In this relationship, the two works mirror their process.
"Schmetterling" works like the “butterfly effect" but making everything converge into one object, as well as Prytz's heliogravure, which consists of a fragment of a work made by scrolling an entire roll of film into a single image, leading the process to converge into a single point. Furthermore, the glow of the light captured by Prytz on the paper and the flickering of Kiessling’s lightwork shows a superimposed aesthetic rendering.

 

In all of these works, time and space fluctuate in a universe of both sense and nonsense. How is it possible to unite these two poles and what do we see in Kiessling's "Disegno del Tempo" and Prytz's geometric drawings ("Literal Geometry") that repeat geometric forms and theorems endlessly? What do we feel in front of Kiessling's "Schmetterling" or Prytz's "Tabula Rasa"?
We become part of the light, we tune into the friction of the materials in the kinetic work, and we feel the variations. Even without engaging directly with these works, they would always be worth "an investigation of life, a state of continuous change and mutual influence" (Prytz) and "a dimension, something with which we can always have a relationship, experiment and build" (Kiessling).

 

After the white cube and the site-specific that gave the space a perfect structure to make the dimension of the space and the work coincide, the artists have confronted a global magnitude that has become their field of work.
The framework of spatial and temporal coordinates has expanded to encompass the Earth and the Universe.
Social structures, historical and metaphysical narratives, and dramatic inclinations collapse into forms determined through the implemented processes.
In an era of increasing dematerialisation and a tendency to condense time to the present moment, spatial experimentation based on time seeks to uncover one's own experience and dimension.
David Prytz and Felix Kiessling's works face the immeasurable by emphasising the fundamental connection between individual actions and universal processes.

 

What is a phenomenon? A phenomenon is something that is observable or audible, but it can also be more than that.
It can be a concept and a process through which we perceive something that generates itself and doesn't stop.
The "Sound of Earth - Schumann frequencies" is an impressive concert of lightning, a musical language of the Earth that can only be perceived using our imagination.
The "Pinhole Camera" shows only what is visible on the outside, while the inside represents the "engine" of thought, the ability to think about a phenomenon or concept and experience it.
The conceptual art based on time, which these works and the research of Kiessling and Prytz are based, elaborates on what it means to imagine and therefore perceive and construct reality on a "plane of immanence" (G. Deleuze).
Hence the possibility of accessing meaning comes through reduction, as seen in the title "TIME", which evokes both temporal duration and the image of a phenomenon.

 

The overall installation is created through the interplay of darkness, sound, light, and movement. The vibrations of the double bass fill the dark space, while the orbiting mechanism offers a secluded view that balances this ambiance. Threadlike grids descend in front of the finger hole, visually representing the "white noise" generated by the instrument. Meanwhile, reflections of orbits on aluminum merge dimensions, creating a sense of a fourth temporal dimension.
The objective nature of the installation fades, and the working processes resemble those of instruments, functioning like antennas, macroscopes, or microscopes.
Prytz's work uncovers a meditation on the ontology of being as an artistic product.
Firstly, the concept of “tabula rasa”, as introduced by Aristotle defines the nature of the mind. 
Moreover, Deleuze’s quote in the text proves useful in conveying an action that serves no other purpose than to reflect the reality processed by this kind of ontology.
For instance, the communication between various parts of a whole is evident in his kinetic sculptures, which incorporate diverse fragments.
To define reality we can rely on the external processes, the dark box or the mind, which shed light on the concepts it projects. Through a small opening, we can glimpse a little magic through a hole or a “folle alchimia” (the title of Prytz’s works with the mineral mixture).
In defining it further, Kiessling’s work helps us to emphasise the concept of scale and dimension.
Felix Kiessling’s minimalism represents reality without adding anything else. The reality experienced, represented by the Schumann frequency, or the sound of the Earth is aking a large wave that is not visible, whose very subtle movement is not perceptible, envisioned with the variation of intensity of the sound generated by pistons that blow air on the double bass strings. In the exhibition, his work captures a vast scale of dimensions whose vibration processed by the instrument can also be influenced by the people in the surrounding environment.
“Time” has always served as the driving force behind reality and art. In the darkness of the exhibition, we may perceive “nothing,” yet, these works impact us profoundly, resonating deeply within both the mind and the body, especially in a transitional space where actions unfold.

 

Felix Kiessling (1980, Hamburg, Germany) lives and works in Berlin. Recent exhibitions: Echtzeit, Alexander Levy, Berlin (solo), Quitte Eisen Soda, Kunstverein Heilbronn (solo), Narrative Pieces, Galleria Mario Iannelli, Roma, The Unexpected Universe: Traces of the Anthropocene, Alexander Levy, Berlin.

 

David Prytz (1979, Aarhus, Denmark) lives and works in Berlin. Recent exhibitions:“A Family Affair. Anna Virnich, David Prytz and Winfried Virnich”, Artefact, Berlin; Narrative Pieces, Galleria Mario Iannelli, Roma, Ever Seen Never Seen, Akkurat Labs, Berlin; Where the Bridge Ends the Satellite Begins, Galerie SP 2, Berlin (solo).

 

Biography of the Felix Kiessling and David Prytz exhibitions at the Mario Iannelli Gallery:

Literal, David Prytz, 2014
Vavilov, Felix Kiessling, 2015
Anatomy of restlessness, 2015, group exhibition
Exocenter, David Prytz, 2017
Earth Piercing, Felix Kiessling, 2019, Monumento Naturale Palude di Torre Flavia
Fire in the mind, 2019, group exhibition
resonance, 2019, group exhibition
Gathering the unpredictable, 2020, group exhibition
“Now Now Now”, Felix Kiessling, 2021
Narrative Pieces, 2023, group exhibition
“TIME. Felix Kiessling - David Prytz”, 2024