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Takis
Champs magntiques / Magnetic FieldsPalais de Tokyo
Feb 18 May 17, 2015
Art review of Takis: Magneti c Fiel ds at the Palai s de Tokyo
published at Hyperall ergic:hyperal lergi c.com/
199722/the-irresist ible-pull- of-takiss-m agnetic-fields/
Takis at Takis Foundation (Kete) Archive KETE-2005, photo by
Marilena Stafilidou
The technologically mediated subjectivity that is at the hub of
the kinetic art of Takis is
founded on the reality of magnetic fields in the universe. Thus
fittingly, the technically
daring retrospective Magnetic Fields pulls us much closer to
this European contemporary
of Yves Klein and Lucio Fontana. Like they, Takis (also
something of a
seer/philosopher/priest/magician/poet) explores the invisible
but real. The deep work of
his art is to surpass what is obvious in the interests of an
interaction with nonhuman
agency.
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Takis, a key post-war figure known for exploring magnetic field
energy, was one of the
avant-garde artists of the 60s that was most able to amalgamate
art and science, paving
the way for all sorts of artistic directions in the ensuing
decades, right up to our electro
days (electromagnetism belongs to all bodies for all time).
Besides this retrospective at
the Palais de Tokyo, the 90 years old artist is also now
exhibiting at the Menil Collection
in Houston, the first survey of his work by a U.S. museum. In
Athens, the Takis
Foundation (Kete) research center for art and science
permanently exhibits his work. As I
swiftly saw in the Alfred Pacquement currated Magnetic Fields,
Takis attempts to
encapsulate cosmic forces by means of integrating magnets, light
and sound vibrations
within artistic practice. Definitely, invisible wave magnetic
fields (the force that allows
magnets to hold metallic materials in suspension) constituted
Takis core visual language.
Born 1925 in Athens, art student of Yannis Tsarouchis, Takis
relocated to Paris during
the 1950s, becoming a philosopher of science as inspired by
pre-Socratic philosophy,
Hippocratic medicine, and Ancient Egypt. His sculptural practice
was then influenced by
Alberto Giacometti (and less so by Joan Mir and Alexander
Calder), as well as by the
invention of radar and the general technological landscape,
which at the time was very
much connected to mystifying ideas of techno-transcendence.
In 1955 Takis constructed his first group of abstract elongated
Signaux sculptures,
made from taut iron rods. They look like antennae with weird
bits at their tips. These
sculptures were motivated by a long wait at Calais for a train
to Paris where Takis
became fascinated by the signaling mechanisms that controlled
train traffic. Takis, who
had made wrought-iron figures of Cycladic inspiration in Athens,
began furiously
producing these upraised, elongated vertical forms, now free of
any anthropomorphic
characteristics. Once de-linked from human postures, their
vibration collecting antennae-
like resemblance formed the symbolic basis of his career and it
was an enjoyable reward
to see them grouped together like some kind of elaborate
quivering UFO chorus line.
Soon, the rods became flexible, able to sway when touched; their
tips mounted with long
horizontal pendulums, electronic pieces, radio transformers,
shrapnel or brushes. Then
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after, he began adding blinking lights to their tips, forming
stop signs that constantly
switched on and off, possibly symbolizing resistance.
Exhibition view of Signal lumineuxs at Takis, Magnetic Fields,
photo by Andr Morin. ADAGP, Paris 2015
Exhibition view of Takis, Magnetic Fields at the Palais de
Tokyo, photo by Andr Morin. ADAGP, Paris 2015
Fascinated by radar, around 1958 Takis first used magnetic
attraction, trying to capture
invisible forces and materialize electricity through the action
of the magnet. In 1959 he
instigated this research in his Tlpeinture and Tlsculpture
pieces, terms coined by
Alain Jouffroy. This research flourishes with his poised Mur
magntique (Magnetic
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Wall) monochrome paintings (paintings that use strong magnets
behind monochrome
canvases to make metal objects hover above its surface) such as
Mur magntique blanc
n8 (1961) and Mur magntique n9 (Rouge) (1961). These paintings
exhibit a non-
dualistic understanding of nature-culture interaction by means
of the magnets embedded
behind the painted surfaces that hold in graceful suspension
groups of metallic objects
just off their surface. Each attached by a separate slim wire to
the ceiling. Although
concealed, the magnets slightly obtrude upon the canvas surface,
forming bumpy
swellings that hold the tethered magnetized objects suspended in
space. This suspension
gives his art the impression of being part of a space age that
defies gravity.
This innovative formal vocabulary is inseparable from the
magnetic field energy that
underlies his entire oeuvre. Work that symbolizes that
everything exposed to the earths
magnetism is recognized as charged. Thus his art is not a
question of content versus form,
and/or form versus content, but of contemporary possibility and
sensibility.
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Mur magntique blanc n8 (1961) Acrylic paint on canvas, two
magnets, copper wire and four painted metal cones
180 x 220 x 11 cm. Donation of Alexandre Iolas (1976) Inv. : AM
1976-1236 Photo : Centre Pompidou, MNAM-
CCI/Philippe Migeat/Dist. RMN-GP Adagp (Paris)
Mur magntique n9 (Rouge) (1961) 180 x 220 x 10 cm Don de
l'artiste et de lAssociation des Amis du CNAC /
Artist and the Association des Amis du CNAC donation (1976)
Paris, muse national dArt moderne, Centre Georges
Pompidou Photo : Centre Pompidou, MNAM- CCI, Dist. RMN-Grand
Palais / Droits rservs ADAGP (Paris)
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Exhibition view of three Mur magntiques at Palais de Tokyo,
photo by Andr Morin. ADAGP, Paris 2015
Exhibition view with LImpossible, un homme dans lespace photo
documentation (left) and three Mur
magntiques (right), photo by Andr Morin. ADAGP, Paris 2015
With this work I could sense that the artist was attempting a
spatial breakout from the
coming pull of globalized homogenization that is pop culture
through the use of electro-
magnetism (electricity exerted from magnets). Indeed in an
interview with Pierre
Restany, he said space is to free oneself from the earthly
gravity. [As such] it is the
dream of the whole of humanity. This powerful idea of defying
gravity can be traced
back to some of El Lissitzkys Prounen paintings and
three-dimensional installations,
and to works of Lszl Moholy-Nagy such as where in his seminal
book from 1947
Vision in Motion he is seen levitating a chisel with compressed
air. This kind of levitating
(Christ-like) spatial obsession with gravity-free transcendence
is, of course, also typical
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of Yves Klein (as publicized with his Leap Into the Void (1960))
and with some similar
virtual concerns of Lucio Fontana.
Takis anti-nuclear war Magnetic Manifesto takes up this longing
in conjunction with his
man in space body art happening LImpossible, un homme dans
lespace (The
Impossible, A Man in Space) (1960). During which poet Sinclair
Beiles recited one of his
poems, I am a Sculpture while being held suspended in the air by
magnets. This occurred
at the Iris Clert gallery, where Takis was associating with New
Realists Yves Klein and
Jean Tinguely. It is a curious historical fact that Man in Space
was performed six
months prior to Yuri Gagarins great feat as the first human to
journey into gravity free
space to complete the first earth orbit in April 1961.
Partial view of the Tllumires room at Takis, Magnetic Fields,
photo by Andr Morin. ADAGP, Paris 2015
To accept that everything within the pull of gravity is more or
less charged, is to
recognize that all bodies relate to one another - echoing
Einsteins Theory of Relativity.
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This recognition is supposedly suggested with his, much less
interesting, Tllumire
series of work (1961) that use oddly anthropomorphic mercurial
cathode devices such as
vacuum-sealed lamps where mercury serves as a conductor for
electrodes. These hefty,
plump light bulbs give the impression they are eerie discards
from an early electronics
laboratory. I found that this mediocre work typically lacked
sensuality. But in one narrow
gallery of this work there is a rather sinister evocative of
Franz Kafkas In The Penal
Colony. An accumulation of lamps from this Tllumires series have
been placed just
above sculptures of torn apart human body parts (including
female genetalia) that have
been placed on what looks like discarded printing machines or
old electrical appliances.
This spooky sexist distopian representation is quite inferior to
the abstract Signaux
sculptures that characterized the sculptors breakthrough
work.
It is sometimes forgotten today that the 1960s were a time when
many European artists
became interested in what was then was known as audience
participation. Takis generally
animated his art through magnets, but in some cases the
spectator was invited to become
an actor in the sculpture. Such was the case with the (now hands
off) Antigravits
(1969) work, an electromagnetic game that invited audience
participation by tossing iron
nails or filings onto a magnetized picture plane. It pales
compared to the work of the
Groupe de Recherche dArt Visuel (GRAV) like Julio Le Parc, who
had an outstanding
retrospective in 2013 also at the Palais de Tokyo.
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Exhibition view of Antigravits (1969) (right) at Takis, Magnetic
Fields, Palais de Tokyo, photo by Andr Morin
ADAGP, Paris 2015
Exhibition view of Wall of Musicales (2002) at Takis, Magnetic
Fields, painted wood, electrical circuits,
electromagnet, cords, needles, photo by Andr Morin. ADAGP, Paris
2015
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But besides the hovering Mur magntique works, the next best work
in the show was
Wall of Musicales (2002), an elegant room of electromagnetic
music producing wall
reliefs. This captivating work appears to be a kind of fruition
of Erik Saties idea of
Furniture Music as revived by John Cage in his theory of
minimal/experimental/avant-
garde music.
Takis idea was to dangle large stringed iron needles in front of
magnetized stretched
musical wires and sound-amplifiers. The devices have a great
simplicity and its visual
proposition is very straightforward. He installed an
electromagnet behind each white
monochrome surface. That attracts and repels a dangling
upholsterers needle, producing
a collective resonance that, I must say, is evocative of profane
ritual. By vibrating alone
or together they generate a humming chtonic sound that gently
filled the curved room
(and me) with a mild ecstasy akin to serenity. It left an
indelible impression on me.
The other sound component in the show, in another gallery, was
The Gong (1995) that
was struck every so often by a hammer-like thing that was also
activated by an
electromagnet.
Exhibition view of The Gong (1995), photo by Andr Morin. ADAGP,
Paris 2015
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As magnets are about attraction, the representation of human
sexual attraction seem a
natural subject for Takis and he tackled it very successfully
with his titillating erotically
charged sculptures from the mid-1970s. Like with the Mur
magntique pieces, floating
metallic elements dazzling hover just off the surface of
seductive naked human figures,
attracted by magnets towards different parts of the body. The
most compelling of these
metal figures was the rapaciously brazen Sebastian (1974). He
has an impressively
extended erection that compliments the feeling of pull that
makes up the magnetic field.
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Sebastian (1974) bronze, magnets and wires, painted iron base.
139cm x 70cm x 50 cm, Takis Foundation (Kete)
Takis/Adagp (Paris)/Photo Hlias Nak, 2014
The fourth dimension, according to Takis, is one of magnetic
energy and transmission
that interacts with objects. Through the art objects of Takis, I
was certainly reminded that
the earths attractive field is an immense magnet that envelopes
us all, and that his
impressive art is a way of conjuring up invisible reality suited
to the polycentric structure
of contemporary power.
Joseph Nechvatal