deterministic multiverse 23|03|18 – 04|05|18

Vesod

Vernissage |23|03|18 19 Uhr

From 23rd March 2018, zone contemporaine is showing the first solo exhibition of the Italian artist Vesod in Switzerland called deterministic multiverse. Born in 1981 in Turin, Vesod still lives and works close to his birthplace, in Venaria Reale.

Vesod came into contact with painting at an early age because his father was a surrealist painter. Not only his father’s job, but also that of his mother, who was a mathematics teacher, is reflected in his career and work. His artistic roots are in graffiti but he first studied mathematics before devoting himself to painting after his father’s death in 2008. After years of observing his father’s work, it was him who now took the brush in hand. In recent years he has developed a unique, distinctive style that takes into account both classic oil painting and his graffiti roots. Following the two artistic traditions, Vesod is found indoors and outdoors and has successfully realised a wide variety of exhibitions and projects over the past few years in Italy, Germany, the USA and other countries.

The fact that mathematics is to this day one of Vesod’s most important sources of inspiration is unmistakable in the exhibition at zone contemporaine. With the title of the exhibition, the artist already refers to the existence of a multiverse and consequently the potential presence of countless parallel universes. In this multiverse, our perceptible universe would be only one universe of many, just like the constellations we observe in our universe, that means the reality we actually perceive would only be a part of the larger whole in which deterministically any other possibility or reality could evolve and thus exist. Following this idea, for example, the flipping of a coin in the here and now leads to a clear result – heads or tails is facing up – but at the same time creates a new parallel world with the opposite result.

With his multi-layered images such as the work “K”, Vesod points to the existence of these parallel universes, which are on one hand so close, and on the other still not directly tangible for us, existing on another level. Also the keys, which are shown fragmented and in various aspects, symbolically stand for the different universes and how we find our way or even the key in them. The chain, in turn, is to be understood as a symbol for the deterministic element of the multiverse mentioned in the title of the exhibition. If at any time all possible realities exist in parallel in different universes, nothing more is left to chance. 

With his dynamic and expressive composition, Vesod, it seems, wants to liberate the painting not only from the surface but also from its long-attributed peculiarity of being able to “only” replay a brief moment. By addressing the simultaneity of parallel existing realities, he seems to raise them to a new level.

In his pictures, Vesod focuses on questions about time, space or even about what happens to us randomly and what is deterministic. Without providing definitive answers, his expressive works rather stimulate people to ponder such aspects and questions themselves.