ZERO. Countdown to the Future
September 2, 2015–January 10, 2016
Sakıp Sabancı Museum
Sakıp Sabancı Cd No:42
34467 Istanbul
Turkey
Hours: Tuesday–Sunday 10–18h,
Wednesday and Friday 10–20h
www.sakipsabancimuzesi.org
www.countdowntothefuture.com
With the generous support of Akbank Sanat, S.U. Sakıp Sabancı Museum, Istanbul welcomes the dynamic and revolutionary spirit of ZERO, the biggest international art network of the 20th century. With the motto that “Art must start from zero” (referencing the countdown to the launch of a rocket), the ZERO movement was born in Düsseldorf in 1957, in the utterly stagnant and negative atmosphere that followed World War II. On a quest to transform conventional notions of art with the promise of a new world defined by light and transparency, ZERO still maintains its relevance and dynamism today, decades after it was founded. Amidst the continuing fervor of the renaissance ZERO has experienced in the last few years following back-to-back momentous exhibitions at the Guggenheim Museum, New York, Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin and Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, S.U. Sakıp Sabancı Museum is ZERO’s latest stop, invoking the signature revolutionary spirit of the movement in the city of Istanbul.
ZERO. Countdown to the Future provides an exhilarating representation of the ZERO movement, which brought down borders and was adopted internationally by artists from all over the world during its most active period in the 1950s and ’60s. The exhibition brings together works by the founders of the movement—Heinz Mack, Otto Piene and Günther Uecker—along with the works of three of the most important artists of the 20th century: Yves Klein, Piero Manzoni and Lucio Fontana, who served as the spiritual forefathers of the movement. Curated by Mattijs Visser, the Founding Director of the ZERO Foundation, the exhibition chronicles the lateral effects of the movement from its inception to today, centering itself around the core themes of the movement: Time, Space, Structure, Light, Fire, Color, Shadow and Vibration. ZERO. Countdown to the Future will introduce the ZERO movement to art enthusiasts in Turkey through an extensive selection of works in which nature and technology interact in novel ways, produced by a group of artists brought together by their unshakeable belief in the future. The exhibition includes over 100 artworks loaned from notable museums, galleries and private collections including Morsbroich Museum (Leverkusen), Stiftung Museum Kunstpalast (Düsseldorf), Langen Foundation (Neuss), Ben Brown Fine Arts (London), Sperone Westwater (New York), and Yves Klein Archives (Paris).
ZERO. Countdown to the Future instills the galleries of S.U. Sakıp Sabancı Museum with an atmosphere of energy and force, accompanied by numerous symposia, conferences, film screenings, children’s workshops, free guided tours, audio accompaniment, and an extensive exhibition catalogue. The exhibition runs from September 2, 2015 to January 10, 2016 at S.U. Sakıp Sabancı Museum.
