In this video we attend the opening of artist David Zink Yi’s solo exhibition at the gallery Hauser & Wirth in Zürich, Switzerland. The Peruvian-born, Berlin-based artist presents a new sound and video installation, titled Why am I here and not somewhere else – Independencia II. The first part of the video shows David Zink Yi’s video installation, while the second part provides you with impressions of the live performance by the 11 Cuban musicians that are featured in the video installation. For this installation, David Zink Yi, who has been studying Cuban music for many years, invited 11 Cuban musicians to perform at Kunstverein Braunschweig in Germany. Many of the musicians are members of the Cuban band “De adentro y afuera”, founded by David Zink Yi. Each musician was placed in a separate room and filmed individually as they performed. The resulting video installation is now on view in a new way in Hauser & Wirth’s Zürich gallery.
David Zink Yi: Why am I here and not somewhere else – Independencia II. Solo Show at Hauser & Wirth Zürich. Private view with live performance, Zürich (Switzerland), August 30, 2013.
Photo set on Flickr:
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Press release:
From 31 August, Hauser & Wirth presents a new sound and video installation by the Peruvian-born, Berlin-based artist David Zink Yi. The title of the 11-part work, ‘Why am I here and not somewhere else – Independencia II’, refers both to the work itself and to its viewer.
‘An important feature in the Cubans’ understanding of music is the special articulation of the sense of time by the rhythmic pattern Clave, which makes a kind of dialectic possible. The musicians create their highly inventive music collectively as well as individually, always with reference to the rhythmic pattern and to each other. They enhance the whole with something that in music is called ‘Independencia’. In this a single musician attempts to mesh different grooves by operating his limbs independently, as if he were not a single musician but several’.
– David Zink Yi
Zink Yi has been studying Cuban music for many years. In May 2013 he invited 11 Cuban musicians to perform in the historic spaces of the Kunstverein Braunschweig in Germany. The artist positioned each musician in a separate room of the Villa Salve Hospes, allocating a specific function and voice to each space within the framework of the performance. The musicians played pieces by Zink Yi, arranged by Michel Alonso Castro and Yuliesky Gonzalez Guerra, as well as compositions by Alain Pérez. The original material for the installation was made up of videos of these performances. The installation was on view in the Kunstverein Braunschweig until 18 August, and has now been installed in a wholly new way in Hauser & Wirth’s Zurich gallery.
The musicians, many of whom are members of the Cuban band ‘De adentro y afuera’, founded by Zink Yi, were filmed individually as they performed. The videos of the performances and the close-ups of the musicians as they played are projected onto the floor of the gallery in different sizes, carpeting the space with a mixture of sounds. The viewer hears a different sound depending on their position in the room; it is only in their head that the work can completely come together.
For the opening of the exhibition on 30 August, the 11 Cuban musicians will give a live performance in the gallery spaces on the ground floor and on the lower floor.
David Zink Yi, born in Lima, Peru, in 1973, first studied at the Munich Academy of Fine Arts, then at the University of the Arts in Berlin. In addition to his recent solo exhibition at the Kunstverein Braunschweig, Germany (2013), he has had solo exhibitions at MALI Museo de Arte de Lima, Peru (2012); Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, Berlin, Germany (2012); and Midway Contemporary Art, Minneapolis MN (2011). His works have also been featured in group shows at Tate Modern, London, England (2012); National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design, Oslo, Norway (2012); and the 10th Bienal de La Habana, Havana, Cuba (2010). Zink Yi was included in ‘El Atlas del Imperio’, the Latin Pavilion’s presentation for the 55th Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy (2013).
