Jon Kessler
The Web
March 6–April 28, 2013
Swiss Institute
18 Wooster Street
New York, NY
Hours: Wednesday–Sunday, 12–6pm
Subway: N / R / Q / 6 to Canal Street
Swiss Institute and Métamatic Research Initiative (MRI), Amsterdam proudly present The Web, a new immersive installation by Jon Kessler. Since 2009 MRI has commissioned contemporary artists to reflect the legacy of the late Swiss artist Jean Tinguely (1925–1991), well known for his kinetic sculptures. Expanding Tinguely’s vision, the work of Jon Kessler builds a bridge between mechanics and electronics, analog and digital worlds.
Much like the Internet itself, The Web acts as both a sentient organism and an environmental space: it facilitates the internal circuit between viewer, camera, and monitor, while simultaneously doubling as a sprawling architectural structure. While The Web conceptually foregrounds the role of networked technologies and our dependence on them, it is in many ways a tribute to direct experience. The viewer of The Web is repositioned among fellow viewers, with the feeling of sensory dislocation condensed into one geographic location—the exhibition space—and recast as a form of shared collective immersion.
The Web is a commission by the Métamatic Research Initiative, Amsterdam.
About Swiss Institute
Swiss Institute has grown from a showcase of Swiss art and artists for a mostly Swiss audience into an innovative international venue for art that provides a significant forum for cultural dialogue between Switzerland, Europe, and the United States. This unique angle fosters interaction between the Swiss and many other communities and nationalities found in New York City. The result is a distinctive view of art and a way of thinking which asks audiences to break with traditional assumptions about art and national stereotypes.
