02 Feb 2012

Kunsthalle Lissabon presents Melvin Moti: Echo Chamber

Kunsthalle Lissabon presents Echo Chamber, Melvin Moti's first solo show in Portugal. The title comes from what E.M. Forster describes as a space in which writers speak so helpfully to each other across time and space.

Ludwig Gosewitz (1936, Naumburg - 2007, Bad Berka) was an artist typically known for his contribution to the Fluxus group. In his most precious body of work, Gosewitz found a way to translate scientific data about planets and constellations into geometrical diagrams and colorful maps. In addition the artist made drawn versions of astrological birth charts for friends and fellow artists. From 1971 onwards however, Gosewitz started to produce his lesser-known mouth-blown glass objects. The unpredictable process of glassblowing follows exactly the opposite logic to the geometrical and mathematical based drawings the artist is generally known for. Later in life, Gosewitz became professor for glass art in the Academy of Art in Munich.

In Moti's most recent film, glass plays a central role. Coming from the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, a number of glassworks were shot floating in outer space, a science fiction exhibition in film format. After working with Victorian glassworks for months, doing research on them and hunting for V&A collection pieces on the antique market, Moti started feeling the natural urge to start making glass pieces himself. Another inspiration has been Marcel Duchamp's The Large Glass (1915-23) and how this piece allows one to travel through different layers of glass, each narrating a scenario, a time-based piece as it were. This has lead Moti to produce his own glassworks, a number of spheres, in which both the texture and the form of the glass refers to the surfaces of planets. The exhibition functions as a channel of communication across generations of artists, in particular Ludwig Gosewitz; a universe where astrology and astronomy blend into a single constellation of shared ideas.

The exhibition Echo Chamber is generously supported by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and the Mondriaan Fund and has the production support of VICARTE - Glass and Ceramic for the Arts.


Melvin Moti was born in 1977 in Rotterdam, where he lives and works. Moti graduated from the Academie Voor Beeldende Vorming, in Tilburg, Netherlands, in 1999 and was a resident artist at De Ateliers, in Amsterdam, from 1999 to 2001, where he now is a tutor. His work has been shown in numerous European institutions, namely FRAC Champagne, in Reims, France, the Stedelijk Museum, in Amsterdam, Museum für Moderne Kunst, in Frankfurt and Kunstverein Köln, In Cologne. He participated in the 5th Berlin Biennial and had recent solo shows at Wiels, in Brussels, Galleria Civica di Arte Contemporanea di Trento, MIT List Visual Arts Center, in Boston and MUDAM, in Luxembourg.