Coal, fire, coffee, iron and sheep's wool – organic and inorganic materials are basic elements in Jannis Kounellis's work. He uses their aesthetic force to have his works appeal to all senses. At the same time he tries to put the static in motion. Metamorphosis and change run through his entire pictorial oeuvre which has grown over five decades. With his work he constructs fields of tension between nature and culture, between order and sensuousness, between the legacy of the past and the contradictions of the present. Elementary aspects of life and the spiritual as well as the tragic, mythology and history are interwoven in a po-etic and theatrical manner in his work.
The exhibition was developed in cooperation with the Museo d'Arte Contemporanea Donnaregina in Naples (MADRE) and in close collaboration with the artist.