“Zimoun,” through February 4

Through Saturday, February 4

Figge Art Museum, 225 West Second Street, Davenport IA

This fall and upcoming winter, Davenport's Figge Art Museum will host an enthralling new, space-specific installation by a famed Swiss artist during the housing (through February 4) of Zimoun, with the large-scale artwork filling the museum's third-floor gallery and boasting more than 80 16-foot-high cardboard stacks each set in motion mechanically.

In addition to the strong visual aspect of numerous moving and jiggling cardboard towers, the movements in this special Zimoun installation will create a multitude of sounds and noises for visitors to contemplate. The sounds of scratching, scraping, rubbing, and clicking will fill the entire exhibition space, and as visitors move around and inside the installation, the sounds and visual perspectives may be experienced in a variety of ways. Through the Figge's latest exhibition, what you hear is what you see, and what you see is what you hear.

“We are so excited to invite the community into this immersive art experience where visitors will encounter a remarkable convergence of visual and auditory elements, reminding us of all of the boundless possibilities that art can offer,” said Figge Executive Director Michelle Hargrave.

Though the installation’s construction is very simple, the highly complex tonal and percussive behavior creates its own evocative sounds and rhythms which change throughout the day. The installation is experienced directly by museum visitors who may walk into, between, and around the lively columns as they generate sounds through friction, vibration, and resonance. Art lovers and engineers alike will be fascinated by the complex sounds emanating from the tower structures of Zimoun. Using very little electricity, the components of the installation are intended to be reusable and recyclable generating little to no waste in its construction and operation.

Zimoun himself lives and works in Bern, Switzerland, and his work has been presented both internationally and throughout the United States. Among recent displays of his work, Zimoun has enjoyed exhibitions at: the Museum Haus Konstruktiv Zurich; Museum of Contemporary Art MAC Santiago de Chile; Nam June Paik Art Museum Seoul; Kuandu Museum Taipei; Art Museum Reina Sofia Madrid; Ringling Museum of Art, Florida; Mumbai City Museum; National Art Museum Beijing; LAC Museum Lugano; Seoul Museum of Art; Museum MIS São Paulo; Muxin Art Museum Wuzhen; Kunsthalle Bern; Taipei Fine Arts Museum; Le Centquatre Paris; Museum of Contemporary Art Busan; Museum of Fine Arts MBAL; and Kunstmuseum Bern.

Beyond his installation compositions, Zimoun also creates purely sound works which, like the installations, emerge from the artist’s interest in creating auditory experiences composed of microscopically small sounds and noises. Zimoun’s recordings are often designed for multi-channel sound systems. Through the implementation of multiple loudspeakers, listeners are placed within a three-dimensional sonic architecture which cannot be discovered visually, but only acoustically. Zimoun has collaborated on numerous recordings with both musicians and visual artists. Many of these recordings may be found on the Leerraum label, which he founded with graphic designer Marc Beekhuis in 2003.

Zimoun will be on display through February 4, with regular museum hours 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Tuesdays through Saturdays (10 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Thursdays) and noon to 5 p.m. on Sundays. Museum admission is $4-10, and more information is available by calling (563)326-7804 and visiting FiggeArtMuseum.org.