*You can see them flying.
For about eight years, artist Zoro Feigl has been experimenting with the movements of a flock of birds. How could he turn those beautiful choreographies in the air into art?
Especially for the Stedelijk Museum Schiedam, this experimenting led to Murmuration, a huge installation on the ceiling. When you look up, it looks like a flock of birds is flying over your head.
Nature
Murmuration is a warm-up for Feigl’s major exhibition Jungle. The opening was planned for mid-April 2020, but has been moved to the end of next year due to the coronavirus and the upcoming renovation. Feigl plays with nature and natural laws in his work. ‘Humanity likes to place itself above or beyond nature,’ he says. ‘Now you see that we are part of something larger. We cannot just rule over nature and its laws.’
Schadow effect
Murmuration overwhelms in its simplicity. The work consists of a foil-stretched ring with a diameter of 8 meters. On it are hundreds of balls, the kind of round balls that are in almost every rotating mechanism. The starling ballet is caused by the movement of the disc. This creates a special shadow effect; just like in nature an always unique performance.
Experience
How does the movement originate? Maybe you can find out, maybe not. It is all about the experience of the work. Nature and physical phenomena are always Feigl’s inspiration. He studies them, experiments and thats how new installations are created. He regularly works together with scientists and engineers.
Moving paintings
The museum previously bought Feigl’s installation Conveyor. It consists of two ‘moving paintings’. Liquid runs vertically upwards via upright conveyor belts. A half oval version in large format: fifteen meters long and three meters high will be on display in Feigl’s major exhibition, next year. Something to look forward to.
Thanks to
Gemeente Schiedam, Mondriaan Fonds, ABF, SDAM