Pipilotti Rist

As a pioneer of spatial video art, Pipilotti Rist astounded the art world with the energetic exorcistic statement of her famous videos. Co-developing with technological advancements in playful exploration of their possibilities, her work proposes footage resembling a collective brain as immersive installations that draw life from slow, caressing showers of vivid color tones. For Rist, showing vulnerability is a sign of strength, which she uses for inspiration. With her curious and lavish recordings of nature and investigative editing, Rist seeks to justify the privileged position we are born in simply by being human. Her installations are finding the possibility for endless discovery and poetical invention within the mind, senses, and body. As she puts it, “besides the energy-intensive exploration of the geographical world, pictures, films, and sounds have been and are the spaces into which we can escape… The projector is the flamethrower, the space is the vortex, and you are the pearl within.”

Pipilotti Rist, Pickelporno, 1992, video, analogue video, 12’07’’, Betacam SP, Farbe, stereo, stills, © courtesy of the artist;