Visitors are invited to light and place a candle on a bruliere in a sculpture which mimics the practice of votive offerings in the Roman Catholic Church. The opportunity is presented to make a simple emotionally-charged gesture in the gallery which might be invested with unprescribed personal or global significance.
The warm air that ascends from the flames turns a propeller which is suspended above, a device with blades which resembles a modern wind turbine. Devotional Power ambiguously highlights a ritual of collective unspoken conviction while somewhat absurdly demonstrating the potential for exploiting surplus non-spiritual power.
Text by Latitudes (Max Andrews & Mariana Cánepa Luna) for the publication which accompanied the exhibition «United Alternative Energies» in Aarhus, 2011
2011, bruliere with votive candles and propeller
Swiss Federal Office for Culture14. – 19.6.2012 Exhibitions
2018: Altes Dampfbad, Baden-Baden
2015: Kunstmuseum Olten
2012: Swiss Art Awards, Basel
2011: Kunsthal Aarhus
2012: Dr. Georg und Josi Guggenheim foundation
Collections2013: Kunsthaus Zurich
Publications2012: Swiss Art Awards. Twisted Realism, exhibition catalogue