Dennis Oppenheim. Chair/Pool

Dennis Oppenheim. Drinking Structure with Exposed Kidney Pool

Dennis Oppenheim. Drinking Structure with Exposed Kidney Pool, detail

DENNIS OPPENHEIM

The famous conceptualist Dennis Oppenheim (born 1938,) is one of the most outstanding figures of contemporary art. Oppenheim has been a pioneering artist in conceptualism, land art, body art, video, and sculpture since the late 1960s.

At the beginning of his career, Dennis Oppenheim joined the Land Art Movement, and together with Walter De Maria and Robert Smithson, sought for inspiration in fields and vast spaces far from city noise. The Annual Rings on ice, made by Oppenheim on the bank of the River Jones, are being reproduced by almost all art history publications.

Chair/Pool, the first work by Dennis Oppenheim in Europos Parkas, was built in 1996. The giant chair is made of about 300 metres of rolled steel pipe, 100 square metres of steel mesh, and contains more than 2 tons of water. Chair/Pool is one of the favourite sculptures among visitors of the museum.

Drinking Structure with Exposed Kidney Pool - the second sculpture by Dennis Oppenheim built at Europos Parkas. 10 metres high, 10 metres long and 5,5 metres wide, “the drinking structure” is shaped like a house with corrugated roofing. The front of the structure represents its face. Two parallel welded steel tunnels form arcs which theoretically allow the structure to rock, and the front portion to dip down steeply to reach the water. Looking at the structure as a living body, one can even imagine how a steel trough, or a tongue, supplies this structure with water.

Leaning towards one side, the structure ­ like a house on springs ­ seems to embody the worries of contemporary man, his feeling of instability. The words of art critic Manuela Gandini, “the work of art is not something to be looked at, but a means to see”, perfectly defines Oppenheim’s creation. This artist wordlessly initiates a philosophical discourse with his audience, fuelling unlimited possibilities of imagination.

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