138 prepared dc-motors, cotton balls, cardboard boxes 40x40x40cm Zimoun 2011 Installation view: Lydgalleriet, Bergen, Norway. Curated by Jørgen Larsson, Lydgalleriet. Assisted by Jacob Alrø, Tolga Balci, Vanessa Gageos and Florian Bürki. Website & more informaiton: http://www.zimoun.ch Compilation Video: http://vimeo.com/7235817 ___________________________________ «The sound sculptures and installations of Zimoun are graceful, mechanized works of playful poetry, their structural simplicity opens like an industrial bloom to reveal a complex and intricate series of relationships, an ongoing interplay between the «artificial» and the «organic». It‘s an artistic research of simple and elegant systems to generate and study complex behaviors in sound and motion. Zimoun creates sound pieces from basic components, often using multiples of the same prepared mechanical elements to examine the creation and degeneration of patterns.» Tim Beck «It is a poetic and humorous absurdity we find in Zimoun’s work, which opens up a wide, refreshing and enriching space for discoveries, associations and a multitude of approaches.» Nina Terry «Zimoun creates more than moving structures; he develops a space where the oeuvre, once it’s set in motion, can create itself.» Oscar Gomez Poviña «Zimoun is best compared to a watchmaker of a self-reproducing time constructing his own gauging station.» Radjo Monk «The clean, elegant sound sculptures combine visual, sonic, and spatial elements in an organically balanced entirely artwork. Using simple and well- conceived mechanical systems, Zimouns‘s work transforms and activates the space.» Jury Prix Ars Electronica 2010 «Zimoun creates complex kinetic sound sculptures by arranging industrially produced parts according to seemingly simple rules. Using motors, wires, ventilators, etc.., he creates closed systems that develop their own behavior and rules similarly to artificial creatures. Once running, they are left to themselves and go through an indeterminable process of (de)generation. These quasi autonomous creatures exist in an absolutely synthetic sphere of lifeless matter. However, within the precise, determinist systems creative categorioes suddenly reappear, such as deviation, refusal and transcience out of which complex patterns of behavior evolve.» Node10 «I perceive Zimoun’s work as a unique, playful, light-hearted, and utterly complex approach and examination of the present.» Tom Gray «The components used in Zimoun’s work are simple, functional and raw, whereas only aesthetically high-level and purposefully chosen elements and materials are used in minimalist fashion. Through radical reduction, Zimoun creates works of art which allow for a plethora of associations without being pinned down to a specific direction. Radical abstraction functions rather like a code in the background of things, thus elegantly avoiding an insinuation of direct, concrete attribution. Thanks to the abundance of mechanical activity, the range of perception, possibilities and interpretations is wide open.» Amanda Neumann «Observing Zimoun’s work opens connections to nature and natural phenomena, physics, quantum mechanics, complexity, simplicity, vitality, individuality, evolvement and growth, but also to industrialization, robotics, mass production and social phenomena, to space, architecture, cosmic white noise, phantasms and highly enjoyable experiences popping up at any moment. Art is supposed to activate and focus our attention. Zimoun’s work seems to be a sweeping and beautiful example for this.» Anton Richter «The works convince through their elegant and clever simplicity in an inconspicuously complex setting.» Stephen Braun «Zimoun’s primary instruments are entirely of his own making, each a large-scale installation of small mechanical devices — tables lined with whipping little bits of tubing, small sets of fetishistically situated mini- motors. They are architecturally precise and their beauty is forged by that precision. The meticulous engineering of Zimoun’s work is a set- up — not an end unto itself, but a staged step toward its end result, an orderly step enacted so as to let chaos flourish. His chaos takes place in close settings, in carefully defined spaces, in systems as thoroughly considered as a laboratory experiment. And the sound emited by them is not an after effect, or an afterthought. It’s a core principal of his practice.» Marc Weidenbaum http://www.zimoun.ch