Zimoun. Villa Manin for contemporary art

Villa Manin celebrates the Swiss artist Zimoun (Bern, 1977), author of visual and sound installations with hypnotic charm. Made of simple materials such as cardboard boxes, plastic bags, metal or wooden rods, the artist’s installations appear as living organisms that enchant us as much for the dynamics of their movements as for the sounds they produce.

The route consists of nine large works that occupy as many rooms in the villa and are both kinetic creations and complex sound instruments. Each of the installations is composed of modular elements driven by electric motors that produce recurring sounds or rhythms. The works created in this way are poised between natural creation and ingenious invention, between study and chance, between geometry and abstraction. They appear as fascinating natural creatures, so much so that the observer is led to search for the logical principle that governs their functioning, as if he were confronted with a new phenomenon of nature.

Villa Manin is not merely a frame for the works. The creations housed in the rooms dialogue with the architecture, the stuccoes and frescoes on the walls, as well as with the sounds of the park. The decorations of the Passariano mansion are characterised by recurring geometric shapes that find a reference in the repetitive elements of the installations, while the sinuous profiles of the stuccoes and the colours of the frescoes enhance the modular character and restrained tones of the works by contrast.

The beats, hums, pulsations and ticks produced by the installations mingle with the sounds of nature from the park: the chirping of birds, the chirping of cicadas, the rustling of the wind, the drumming of the rain.

Zimoun’s work is therefore an opportunity to rediscover the spaces of the villa, a new way to visit it and to get closer to the nature that surrounds it.

The exhibition is curated by Guido Comis, Director of the Cataloguing, Promotion, Enhancement and Territorial Development Service of ERPAC (Ente Regionale per il Patrimonio culturale del Friuli Venezia Giulia, Friuli Venezia Giulia’s Regional Agency for Cultural Heritage).