not vital - Yorkshire Sculpture Park

NOT VITAL
Resource Pack
BIOGRAPHY
“It took me twenty years to realise that I could
make a sculpture of the mountain in front of me.
I have seen this mountain since I was born.”
(Not Vital)
Not Vital was born in 1948 in Sent, Switzerland.
He grew up among the mountains and forests in
the Engadin valley which lies near to the borders
of Switzerland, Austria and Italy. A place noted for
its beauty, the landscape, mountains and colours
have influenced Vital thoughout his long career
even though he spends much of his time travelling
and living in many places including China, Africa,
Italy and USA. With studios in the Sent and
Beijing, China, as well as homes in Rio de Janeiro
and Niger, Vital’s nomadic and diverse practice
includes sculpture, paintings and works on paper
made from plaster, bronze, steel, silver, gold,
marble, glass and coal.
“[My portraits] are all white and grey, with a bit
of blue at times. Even though for me, they are very
colourful. Again, that takes us to where I grew up:
the grey land, The Grisons. Those really are the
colours I grew up with. If I had been born in India
or Brazil, I think my paintings would be completely different. They would be more colourful for sure.”
(Not Vital)
“I knew from an extremely early age that I wanted to leave. I remember a moment – I was maybe five
years old – when I realised I had to get out of there. You have to greet everyone all day long. It was very
strict, saying Bun di until 11.00, and so on. But I was so absentminded and immersed in my thoughts that
I would forget to greet people, and then I’d get punished for it. So even as a very young boy, I thought
I should go someplace where I didn’t have to say hello to everyone all the time…” (Not Vital)
“It’s not atypical for people to leave the Engadin. People have been leaving the valley since the 16th
century. They had to leave in order to survive. Strangely enough, people from my village always migrated
to Italy, where they lived for decades, doing the same job as a patissier. They still return to Sent once
a year, during the summer months. We call them the ‘swallows’ because each year when the swallows
arrive, so do they.” (Not Vital)
“When we were young, my father said that we could not follow in his footsteps. I had two older
brothers, and he didn’t want us to be part of his [timber] business, because it had been in the family
for five generations. He said it was like incest: you can’t continue in the same business for too long
or it becomes insular. So we had to come up with something new. When I told him I wanted to be
an artist, he said ‘don’t exaggerate’.” (Not Vital)
BIOGRAPHY
Vital developed his passion for art under the mentorship of the art historian and former director
of the Kunsthalle Bern, Max Huggler.
“I was very lucky to grow up knowing the art historian Max Huggler, who was a friend of the family.
He had a fantastic modern art collection and had been director of the Kunsthalle Bern and the
Kunstmuseum Bern. When he decided to come up and live in our village of Sent, this beautiful place
in the Engadin, he brought his art collection with him. Klee, Kurt Schwitters, Mondrian and Picasso,
and also Beuys and Manzoni were in his collection. I had it right there, I could go to his house and look
at all his works. It was the best introduction to art, because it wasn’t a museum but a private collection.
I could touch the paintings, take the Schwitters for a walk and photograph them. Huggler also used
to ask questions and bounce ideas off me… So when the time came to choose my career and I told my
father I wanted to become an artist, he of course consulted with his friend Max Huggler, who suggested
that I go to Paris, and that’s where I went.” (Not Vital)
Vital studied visual art at the Universitaire Expérimental de Vincennes, Paris from 1968 to 1971 and after
graduation he travelled to various Mediterranean countries, Canada and the United States. He settled
in Rome for just over a year, establishing an avant-garde street circus. In 1974 he moved to New York,
participating in a small group show in 1981 at PS122 in the East Village, where Peter Nagy of Nature
Morte saw his work. He invited Vital for a group show, and after a complimentary Village Voice review,
Nagy held a solo show for Vital in 1983. That same year Vital travelled to Pietrasanta, Italy and cast
bronze for the first time in the foundries there.
“I was drawing [in New York], but I was constantly thinking about sculpture, I wanted to make sculpture
because it was the thing I knew least about. I’ve always felt that it’s better to start from scratch. Let’s
say you play some piano, and one day you decide you want to become a pianist, you’ll always think that
you’re a little bit better than you really are. I think it’s better to start from scratch, and for me, that was
sculpture.” (Not Vital)
“The first sculpture I made was of one animal holding up another, in plaster. It took me a long time until
I made my first sculpture. I was almost 30 years old then… It is based on the place I was born and raised.
In the isolated mountains where I grew up, animals always played an important role. Animals are also
integrated into the architecture of the Engadin: they live together with the people, and they heat the
houses from beneath. The architecture in the Engadin is one of the most intelligent of Alpine
architecture. Animals always served an important role in our daily lives. So did hunting.” (Not Vital)
Working with craftsmen around the world, from steel-chasers in Beijing and glass blowers in Murano,
to Tuareg silversmiths in Agadez and papermakers in Bhutan, Vital does not have a recognisable ‘style’,
although his works often reference nature and anthropomorphism, a relationship to home and to travel,
and the surreal. Vital captures and materialises his ideas spontaneously, and to the highest quality,
resulting in imaginative spaces, which might be an enlarged camel pelvis in stainless steel, or a house
which disappears underground at the touch of a button.
MATERIALS
“I believe that using all these different materials may also have something to do with using different
languages. You know, my mother language, Romansch, is only spoken by 36,000 people, and there are
five different dialects… You grow up in a place where, if you go 20 minutes this way, they speak one
language; if you go 18 minutes the other way, they speak another, so you grow up knowing so many
languages… I only communicate in my mother tongue maybe a tenth of the time; most of the time,
I’m using a different language. So maybe that has something to do with why I use so many different
materials in my work.” (Not Vital)
Vital has a particularly intimate relationship with materials “the physicality with which he works with
them, the respect he has for the craftsmen who have perfected their techniques, his admiration for
the beauty of materials, and the way he challenges their boundaries and seeks to understand their
structure”. (Alma Zevi)
Plaster
“I think if you grow up in a surrounding where you
have snow for six months of the year, your eyes
are naturally sensitive to white. Then, when the
snow melts, the mountains turn grey… So I became
accustomed to these nuances in grey and white
and not so much colour. Even now, my favourite
material is plaster, not only because of the colour,
but also because of the speed. It dries quickly.
You have to work fast.” (Not Vital)
Stainless steel
Since 2008 Vital spends five months of the year
working in his studio in the Caochangdi district
of Beijing. Here, he found exceptionally skilled
and creative stainless steel craftsmen on the
outskirts of Beijing, and had works such as
Cuq (2012), Moon (2011) and Tongue (2010)
made. Rather than being cast in a mould, the
stainless steel is crafted by hand: hammered
sheet-metal welded together and then polished
with a hand-operated machine. The complicated,
arduous and lengthy process is an important part
of the work, resulting in a smoothly polished
surface that is highly reflective, yet imperfect.
The (slight) imperfections make for a rich patina
quite unlike that of cast steel, and Vital is attracted
to this visceral-ness. He chose the reflective
surface because he wanted to understand what
meanings the material might lend to forms, such
Rabbit Turning into a Cloud 2009 plaster, cotton and fibreglass
Moon 2015 stainless steel
MATERIALS
as a lotus root (Ou 2013), or a vertebra-like shape
(Adam, One Afternoon 2012). Fragmented
colours and forms are reflected in the variously
sized craters of Moon and in the long, muscular
contours of Tongue. While a two-dimensional
reflective work will always be the variation of a
mirror, a reflective three-dimensional sculpture
becomes an installation; it interacts with the
space and with the audience. It is no surprise
that Vital is a great admirer of Brancusi, who
pioneered the use of polished, reflective surfaces
that render the form and content fluid, and are
reliant on the audience. (Alma Zevi)
Organic matter
Vital has used organic matter to create sculpture,
including dog, chicken, donkey, cat, cow dung and
camel remains.
“For quite some time, I used juxtapositions in my
sculpture in order to create more tension in the
work. I would practice combining two things which
were not related, like the work… Camel. I was in
Africa – just outside of Agadez in Niger – where…
I met a silversmith I knew. He had a sphere on his
ring and I asked him if he had made the ring
himself and he said, ‘yes’. When I asked him if he
could make a sphere as big as a melon, he just said,
“Oui. Pas de problème.” No problem, although he’d
never done it before. So that’s when I started
wondering what I could place inside that sphere,
using just those elements surrounding us at that
very moment... If I was to use the elements
surrounding us to fill these spheres then I would
have five possibilities. There were the stars, the
sand, me, the silversmith and his camel. I couldn’t
put in the stars or the silversmith or me, and filling
a sphere with sand would be quite stupid. But the
silversmith’s camel was there, so I said, “Let’s fill
the sphere with a camel”, and again he said, “Pas
de problème”. The next day we went to the market
where they sold camels... and we bought an old
camel that was killed and sun dried the day after.”
Adam On Afternoon 2011 stainless steel
Camel 2004 silver and sun-dried camel remains
MATERIALS
Marble
When Vital makes a work in marble it is always from
one stone: striking examples include a perfectly
spherical Moon (2014) with hundreds of carved
craters, and a 920cm tall Tower (2009) that one
can walk into. Tower is an ageless and modern
form, which nothing can be added to or removed
from. It is an ambitious feat of engineering made
possible by the most cutting-edge technology in
Pietrasanta, Italy, a place Vital has been returning
to for over twenty years. The traditional association
of marble with classical sculpture is subverted by
the minimalist, geometric form of the tower, with
its linear silhouette, and the pointed top piercing
the skylike an arrow. Everything changes upon
stepping inside Tower: it is cold and dark, and
sound is muffled. (Alma Zevi)
Some of Vital’s most recent marble works are
his ongoing series of Dali Stones. It is on Vital’s
numerous trips to Southern China that he
discovered these Dali stones. These stones
are named after the city of Dali, while the Dali
stone in Chinese means marble. These natural,
marble stones resemble paintings, often of
landscapes: trees, rivers, seascapes, foliage,
lakes, forests, mountains and sky. These
‘landscapes’ are found in a delicate palette
of greys and blacks that is perfectly fitting
with Vital’s own chosen palette, which rarely
strays from the monochrome. Vital has been
avidly collecting these stones in recent years,
adorning his homes both in Beijing and Sent
with them, as well as carefully curating them
into the respective studio spaces. He proceeded
to embed these stones in hand-crafted, and
slightly irregular, plaster forms that act as both
frame and plinth, resolutely thrusting the Dali
stone into the world as an object, despite its
having a perfectly smooth and flat surface.
Tower 2009 Carrara marble
Untitled 2011 Marble
GEOGRAPHY
Vital’s works reflect an acute sense of adventure and passion for the world around him.
This fuels his desire to seek out skilled craftspeople including Tuareg silversmiths in Niger,
marble carvers in Italy, expert workers in beaten steel from Beijing, ceramicists from
Jingdezhen in China, and glass blowers from Murano among others. Utilising the expertise
of artisans across the world is an important aspect of his artistic practice, as well as the
collaborative process of working with others.
“I think that if someone wants to know who they are and where they belong, they can only
travel the way I do. Otherwise they waste a lifetime finding out.”
The tension between his ancestral culture and his global adventures is a palpable driving force
in Vital’s artistic process. (Alma Zevi)
“My life . . . it has no rhythm. Two weeks ago I was in South America but it is winter there. It was
dark at nine o’clock. I could sleep longer. But I don’t want to waste too much time sleeping. I have
to begin to do something.”
The language of the region in Sent is Romansh, the least common of Switzerland’s four national
languages, spoken by less than one percent of the country’s population. The linguistic situation
left an indelible mark on Vital, by primary school he was already speaking four languages. He has
suggested that his use of many languages may be connected to his desire to use many different
materials within his work.
Central to his work is an exploration of the spatial, economic and cultural contexts of his homes
and workplaces. One adobe pyramid in Aladab, Niger is a ‘human sculpture’ – a structure in which
students shelter and learn, and on which they can sit, sing and pray, transforming the artwork into
an open-air schoolhouse (or vice-versa). Vital’s multiple house built with the purpose of watching
the sunset and skies are precisely that, drawing out the extraordinary qualities of the places in which
they are situated, while simultaneously giving work to local people.
IDENTITY
“I was always kind of interested in painting,
because painting and sculpture are two different
worlds and at some point I wanted them to cross
over. It happened by coincidence when I joined my
assistants in an art store in Beijing. I bought two
canvasses, two brushes and paint. The I had one
assistant sit down and I painted his portrait, and
it just happened to turn out okay. Then I made a
self-portrait, and so I continued. What I like about
these paintings is that they’re an inner vision of
yourself and other people. Its like taking an x-ray
of to see what’s inside.” (Not Vital)
Full-frontal poses and bold characterisation in Vital’s
portraits emphasise the physical confrontation and
proximity between artist and sitter. The resulting
intimacy is heightened by their looking directly at
one another, often for hours at a time. The absence
of background also heightens this confrontational
aspect, and positions the viewer in the place of the
artist, reflecting Vital’s conception of portraiture as
enabling one to perform as someone else or inhabit
another identity: “I decided to be a sculptor when
I was 19 and I simply got stuck on it. I could also
imagine being a rice farmer, a lawyer or a criminal.
Painting gives me that freedom”. (Not Vital)
The self portraits show Vital taking on various
roles, ranging from socio- and geo-political
(Self-portrait as a Rice-Farmer 2010, Self-portrait
as a North Korean 2009), to vocational explorations
(Self-portrait as a Chinese Singer 2009), to the
bizarre (Self-portrait as a Giraffe 2009). Through
this flirtation with the canonical portrait genre of
self-disguise – as exemplified from Rembrandt
to Cindy Sherman – Vital explores the notion
of self, both real and imaginary, presenting it as
a fluid concept. Most of the self-portraits show
Vital in disguise whereas the portraits of sitters
are seldom depicted so, suggesting the identities
presented have a personal significance, perhaps
holding an alter-ego value. (Alma Zevi)
Self-portrait 2012 oil on canvas
Self-portrait as a Rice Farmer 2010 oil on canvas
ARCHITECTURE
“It’s nice to cross over into architecture, I think, because the gap between architecture and sculpture is
getting narrower and narrower and it’s usually the architects who cross over to sculpture.” (Not Vital)
“The first home or hut I constructed was as a child,
during those long summer vacation months in Sent.
It was phenomenal to be able to build your own
house at such an early age and live in it, and in
such a harsh environment. It was done with
tremendous passion and unlimited energy. As an
adult, it’s hard to be so passionately involved,
because you have to deal with so many factors,
like building rules and making money… but to be
able to go back to that point in childhood, to feel
the same passion for something as when you
were five or seven years old… it’s really amazing.”
“I am asked why I have so many houses? These
areas are just places I visit and like to stay in even
for a night. I would have a house to watch the
sunset even if I could only spend one night there.
Next day it could have crumbled, and it would
have been fine, because I had this one night of
an experience....”
[In 2003] Vital began work on the Parkin, a
fantastical sculpture park in Sent. Here he has
been fabricating ambitious structures – both
technically and conceptually – including houses
towers and bridges. These often have newlyinvented purposes. For example, the remotecontrol operated Disappearing House, which
disappears into the ground and becomes invisible
as grass grows on the flat roof like a camouflage.
Each building in the Parkin has a different
relationship with its surroundings: some are
very closed off, separating inside and outside,
while others have a fluid notion of inside and
outside, such as House by the River, where a
tree grows through the house. Some of these
‘houses’ barely fit one person, while others might
fit a few more. Furthermore, Vital’s choice of
materials for his houses is, as with the sculptures,
greatly varied: wood, aluminium, steel, animal skins
and artificial hair. (Alma Zevi)
Disappearing House 2007, Sent, Switzerland
Donkey Bridge Sent, Switzerland
ARCHITECTURE/ SCULPTURE
House to Watch the Sunset, Aladab, Niger 2005
“When you make a house to watch the sunset,
then you have purpose. Living there is secondary.
You wake up and you get water from the well and
you go behind a tree to pee and it’s very nice.
There’s no waste and you give what you have
back to the plants. That I found to be luxury.”
House to Watch the Sunset is made of sun-dried
bricks and has three storeys containing one room
each. The staircase to each floor is external, thus
to move from one floor to the other, one is forced
to descend to the ground then climb the stairs
leading to the desired floor. The structure of the
house results in a totally self-contained building.
As Vital states: “Nothing can be added or
removed”. To build a house whose sole function is
to watch the sunset is poetic and transcendental
in its simplicity. It is a monumental sculpture and
will continue to delight and elude its visitors, who
will marvel just as much at the building as the
landscape it was designed to showcase.
(Alma Zevi)
When asked which of his houses is most complete,
“The one built for watching the sunset. Because
it’s a house you can’t add or subtract anything
from. It’s complete in itself. It is what it is. You
couldn’t even take one step away without
diminishing it.”
NotOna Island, Patagonia, Chile 2009
In 2008 Vital bought an island in Patagonia and
named it NotOna, Ona being the name of the
indigenous people of the region. The island is
naturally composed of marble. The landscape
and setting is exquisite, with extraordinary
mountains, water-reflections, clouds, and sunsets.
Although Vital’s intention was to build a house on
the island, he soon became convinced that it was
too beautiful for that, so he decided to excavate
a 50-metre tunnel and then polish its floor to
create the ‘house’ – one continuous piece of
marble. Thus he creates a hidden monolithic
House to Watch the Sunset 2005, Aladab, Niger
NotOna Island 2009, Patagonia, Chile
ARCHITECTURE/ SCULPTURE
sculpture. Meanwhile the entire island was
transformed into a piece of sculpture that
demonstrates the many ways in which marble
can appear – polished, rough, under vegetation,
in caves, and underwater. In daytime the house is
practically invisible and at night the light in the
tunnel marks a bright and mysterious spot in the
darkness, which can be seen from miles away,
almost like a lighthouse. (Alma Zevi, 2013)
Makaranta, Agadez, Niger 2003
“They don’t go to school – they go on the school…
It’s the best sculpture I’ve done – it’s a kinetic
sculpture, which moves.”
“...Niger, one of the poorest countries in the world,
in a town that’s 1000 kilometres away from the
capital Niamey or the nearest river. I dont have to
describe for you what the old school was like.
I decided to build a new school. It was built for
150 children. It’s on top of a hill and the kids really
loved to be there, because finally they had not
only a nice school, but a nice playground, too. It
was a little bit too successful, however: instead of
150 pupils, there were soon 600 children. Now you
cannot see the school anymore because it’s a
mountain of children.” (Not Vital)
House to Watch the Night Skies, Agadez, Niger
2006
“When you build a place to look at the sky or
watch the sunset, it’s an invitation to dream.”
The only access is by a ladder positioned at
the back of the sculpture. The ladder leads only
to the roof - a narrow surface from which to
watch the sky. “It requires a little concentration
and skill not only to climb it but to sit or lay on
top of it. The space on top is very narrow so
you increase somehow your concentration to
view the night skies.” (Not Vital)
NotOna Island 2009, Patagonia, Chile
Makarenta 2003, Agadez, Niger
House to Watch the Night Skies 2006, Agadez, Niger
PAINTING AND PRINTS
Vital produces both paintings and prints using minimal colours and using people and animals as subjects.
“The decision to paint people is because you are constantly surrounded by people here in China.
In the end, it’s not important whether you paint a table or a fish or a face. You just have to make
a decision. I made the decision to just paint faces… and it’s already so much. Even just painting
portraits of my assistants or the trash lady who comes by is almost too much already.” (Not Vital)
“Painting is like climbing a mountain: you want to reach the peak. There are different ways to get
there, while the views, the light, form and colour, change constantly. A feverish mood. I just want
to paint the head I see in front of me. It’s more than enough, and probably one day I will use the
same head over and over again… and it’s most probably going to be mine”. (Not Vital)
Like Francis Bacon, Vital insists on placing glass over his paintings. Without the glass and the frame,
the works are deemed incomplete, thus in fact Vital is presenting us with a series of three-dimensional
works: sculptures. (Alma Zevi)
One particularity of Vital’s prints is the use of three-dimensional items as a starting point for the
creation of his prints. In 1990 for example, the artist used a cow’s tongue to create an aquatint
titled Tongue… placing the tongue directly onto a prepared plate.
Also in some later prints he uses similar ideas, but each time in a different manner. In Kiss (1996) for
example, he placed two dead lambs coated with lift-ground solution onto the plate, later on touched
up the off-print and continued with the usual Aquatint process. The image is not the representation
of the lambs, such as in another portfolio with the ‘portraits’ of his flock of sheep in Sent. In this print
Vital uses the forms of the animals; he evokes their bodies and therefore the space they would
occupy. The use of natural items helps to create space and, at the same time, constitutes the subject
of a discussion which is very important for Vital.
SELECTED WORKS
Let 100 Flowers Bloom (2008)
Let 100 Flowers Bloom is a sculptural installation
consisting of stainless steel lotus flowers, each
circa three metres long. The title is simultaneously
poetic in its visual language, and absolute in its
authoritarian command. The title refers to the
slogan for a short-lived propaganda campaign
Mao Zedong enforced in 1956. The stainless
steel is crafted by hand in Beijing, rather than
cast; the latter is now the norm in Europe.
Welding together, chasing, and hand-polishing
the steel is a complicated, arduous and lengthy
process. Indeed the technical process is an integral
part of our understanding of the work, which
results in a smoothly polished surface that is
highly reflective. Fragmented colours and forms
are reflected in the bulbous lotus heads and their
pointed ends, as well as in the long, graceful stems.
(Alma Zevi)
Pelvis (2008)
Based on the pelvis of a camel, scaled up and
fabricated in beaten steel, this sculpture reflects
the deep-rooted connection to animals that
shapes much of Vital’s work. He has a base in
Agadez, Niger, where camels play an essential
role in the way of life of the nomadic Tuareg
people of the Sahara Desert as a status symbol, a prestigious means of transportation, currency, and a source of food.
Sited here in YSP’s Country Park, the open
spaces of Pelvis create windows to the landscape
beyond and resonate with the nearby Henry
Moore bronzes. Like Moore, Vital is interested by the sculptural presence of bones, and Pelvis
magnifies the importance of a skeletal frame, taking it to architectural size. The highly polished,
stainless steel surface dynamically mirrors its
environment, and creates distorted reflections,
making the viewer aware of their relation to the
object, its surroundings and themselves.
Let 100 Flowers Bloom 2008 stainless steel
Pelvis 2008 stainless steel
SELECTED WORKS
Tongue
Tongues first entered Vital’s visual frame of
reference in 1985 when he bought a cow’s
tongue from a butcher in Lucca, Italy, that he
then cast in bronze to make a sculpture just
39cm high. Like Pelvis shown in YSP’s Country
Park, the Tongue shown here is enlarged beyond
immediate recognition and also lays the form
bare in a way to which we are not accustomed.
Connecting the external to the internal body, it
is only the tip of a tongue that is usually seen;
as a whole it seems surreal and dislocated, yet
beguilingly beautiful. A vital and sensitive organ
both physically and symbolically, in humans it is
critical as the site of speech and taste, and of
a kiss.
The elongated animal tongues Vital casts from
are considerably more phallic in shape than the
human tongue, rendering them as potent and
totemic symbols, a fact reinforced by a resolutely
upright stance. Commanding attention from the
top of the Bothy Garden, Tongue repays much
closer attention to its surface, and the gently
undulating curves around its base. Made from
chased stainless steel, the sculpture began as a
full-size clay model from which a hard fibreglass
replica was cast. Using this as a base, individual
steel sheets were carefully beaten by hand against
an anvil until the fit to the form was perfect, when
they were welded together and polished to create
this seamless surface.
Over time, Vital’s toungue sculptures have
gradually grown in scale and the many iterations
have been made using materials including
Carrera marble, bronze and stainless steel. He
has also used a tongue as a three-dimensional
object to print from, placing an animal tongue
directly onto the printing plate.
Tongue 2008 stainless steel
Tongue
SELECTED WORKS
HEADS
Through much of the last decade, Vital has
been drawing and painting portraits, which
have become increasingly abstract, many
rendered as dense, dark areas of oil paint. In
2013 while in Laos, Vital saw a monumental
Buddha head; more or less disregarded and
placed on the ground, it nevertheless
communicated an intense sculptural and
spiritual presence. Fusing the monochrome
economy of his drawing and paintings with
this experience, he embarked on an ongoing
series of sculpture HEADS, five of which are
shown at YSP. Pared back to the most stark
and essential likeness, they both reflect and
hold the space around them; imminent and
compelling, they demand our focus.
Shown at YSP for the first time, five new ceramic
HEAD sculptures on the Underground Gallery lawn
have taken two years to come to fruition, defying
many technical difficulties along the way. They
were made in Jingdezhen in China, the ceramic
capital of the country, and the large chimneys
that were once used to fire the kilns there have
been a source of inspiration.
“From the very beginning when I started working
in Jingdezhen I was impressed by the large
chimneys that were used for centuries for firing
the kilns. Today they are out of use due to gas
and electric heating. I made chimneys in ceramic.
When they were finished I put them aside.
After many attempts to fire the large HEADS,
the top of them turned inward due to the
enormous weight. I decided in my last times
here in Jingdezhen that I would marry the two
works by placing the chimneys on top of the
HEADS and this is the result. It makes the
sculptures enormous in size, among the tallest in
ceramics, almost Egyptian scale.” (Not Vital)
HEAD 2013 stainless steel with PVD coating
Broken HEAD on Broken Vase 2016 ceramic
CV
Born 1948 in Sent, Engadin (Switzerland)
Lives and works in Agadez (Niger), Beijing (China), NotOna Island,
Patagonia (Chile) and Sent (Switzerland)
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2016
Not Vital, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, West Yorkshire, UK
2014
Tanter, Cabinet d’Arts Graphiques, Musées d’Art et d’Histoire, Geneva, Switzerland
Not Vital, Galería Patricia Ready, Santiago, Chile
ALLENDE by NOT VITAL, Ejercicios Mosqueto, Santiago, Chile
HEADS, Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Paris, France
The Drawing Show: Not Vital “Snow”, Akira Ikeda Gallery, New York City, USA
NOT VITAL: Skulptur 1986 – 2013, Galerie Andrea Caratsch, St. Moritz, Switzerland
NOT VITAL: PIZ, Gian Enzo Sperone - Chasa dal Guvernatur, Sent, Switzerland
Everton, Sperone Westwater, New York City, USA
NOT VITAL: Il pavimento della cucina di mia nonna, Museo d’arte di Mendrisio, Mendrisio, Switzerland
2013
Not Vital: Landscapes, Ben Brown Fine Arts, Hong Kong, China
Not Vital: 700 Snowballs, Isola di San Giorgio Maggiore, Venice, Italy
guarda, Galerie Urs Meile, Beijing, China
2012
Not Vital, Sperone Westwater, New York City, USA
Let One Hundred Flowers Bloom, Kunstraum Dornbirn, Dornbirn, Austria
Not Vital: Werke 1989 Bis 2011, Schauwerk Sindelfingen, Sindelfingen, Germany
Not Vital: OEuvres sur papier, Galerie Guy Bärtschi, Geneva, Switzerland
5 Spaniards & Nothing, Ivorypress Space, Madrid, Spain
2011
Hanging & Waiting, Almine Rech Gallery, Brussels, Belgium
Art & Architecture Projekt 2011: No Problem Sculpture, Art Forum Ute Barth, Zürich, Switzerland
Haare, Hirsch & Mao, Galerie Nordenhake, Berlin, Germany
Not Vital: Full On, UCCA (Ullens Centre of Contemporary Art), Beijing, China
Plasters, Akira Ikeda, Tokyo, Japan
Sculptures: Diao Su, Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Paris, France
Not Vital: Opere Grafiche, Villa Garbald, Castasegna, Switzerland
2010
Modell für Schlafendes Haus, Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac Editions, Salzburg, Austria
Not Vital: Suicides, Ben Brown Fine Arts, London, UK
Not Vital, La Punt, Switzerland
Places in the World, Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Paris, France
CV
2009
Pelvis, Galerie Luciano Fasciati, Chur, Switzerland
Schlafendes Haus, Kunsthalle Vienna, Vienna, Austria
NOT VITAL: NOT WHY, Galerie Urs Meile, Beijing, China
2008
Tongue, Galerie Urs Meile, Beijing, China
Let One Hundred Flowers Bloom, Currents – Art and Music, Beijing, China
Not Vital: 10 Austrians and More, Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Salzburg, Austria
2007
Punts, Galerie Luciano Fasciati, Chur, Switzerland
Lotus, Coffee and Stone Pine, Portraits, Snow and Boyfriend, Sperone Westwater,
New York City, USA
Hearts, Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac Editions, Salzburg, Austria
300 palle di neve, Museo Cantonale d’Arte, Lugano, Switzerland
2006
The Arts Club of Chicago, Chicago, USA
(bap, mamma, eu) mit Alberto Sorbelli, Galerie Guy Bärtschi, Geneva, Switzerland
Nietzsches Schnauz, Zeichnungen, Nietzsche Haus, Sils Maria, Switzerland
2005
Not Vital: New Sculpture, Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Paris, France
Not Vital: Agadez, Kunsthalle Bielefeld, Bielefeld, Germany
Not Vital: Agadez, Albion Gallery, London, UK
Not Vital: New Sculpture, Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Salzburg, Austria
2004
Sperone Westwater, New York City, USA
Milla larmas id ün chamel, Galerie Nordenhake, Berlin, Germany
300 Camels, Central House of Artists, Moscow, Russia
Caratsch de Pury & Luxembourg, Zürich, Switzerland
2003
FAT ES FAT, Museo Cantonale d’Arte, Lugano, Switzerland
Chasa Jaura Valchava, Valchava, Switzerland
Balthasar Burkhard, Not Vital, Galerie Tschudi, Zuoz, Switzerland
2002
Not Vital: Mias Muntognas, Edith Wahlandt Galerie, Stuttgart, Germany
Vital, Galerie Guy Bärtschi, Geneva, Switzerland
Skulpturen, Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Salzburg, Austria
FAT ES FAT, Museum zu Allerheiligen Schaffhausen, Sturzenegger Stiftung, Switzerland
FAT ES FAT, Kunsthalle Göppingen, Göppingen, Germany
CV
2001
Skulpturen, Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Salzburg, Austria
Scultures récentes, Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Paris, France
Not Vital: New Sculpture, de Pury & Luxembourg, Zürich, Switzerland
Voglio vedere le mie montagne, Galleria Cardi & Co., Milan, Italy
2000
Nils Stark Galerie, Copenhagen, Denmark
1999
Snowballs, Baron / Boisanté, New York City, USA
Sperone Westwater, New York City, USA
1998
Nototo, 1000 Eventi, Milan, Italy
1997
Large Works on Paper, Baron / Boisanté, New York City, USA
Sperone Westwater, New York City, USA
Totem Und Tabu, Kunsthalle Bielefeld, Bielefeld, Germany
Not Vital, Malmö Konsthall, Malmö, Sweden
1996
Galerie Luciano Fasciati, Chur, Switzerland
1995
Galerie Lehmann, Lausanne, Switzerland
Sculpture, Sperone Westwater, New York City, USA
Not Vital: 1000 Eventi, Turin, Italy
Galleria Gian Enzo Sperone, Rome, Italy
1994
Not Vital: Skulpturen Zeichnungen Druckgraphik, Galerie Edith Wahlandt, Stuttgart, Germany
Berggruen & Zevi Limited, London, UK
1993
Galerie Lehmann, Lausanne, Switzerland
Cow Dung, New Bronze Works, Wooster Gardens, New York City, USA
Adam, One Afternoon, Baron / Boisanté, New York City, USA
Galerie Niels Ewerbeck, Vienna, Austria
1992
Sculture Recenti, Studio Guenzani, Milan, Italy
CV
1991
Auf Mist wachsen Blumen, Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Salzburg, Austria
Not Vital: The Complete Prints and Multiples, Baron / Boisanté Gallery, New York City, USA
The Complete Prints and Multiples, Bündner Kunstmuseum, Chur, Switzerland
1990
PS Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
Curt Marcus Gallery, New York City, USA
Prix BCG ‘90, Musée Rath, Geneva, Switzerland
El Maktoub Maktoub, Baron / Boisanté Gallery, New York City, USA
Gallerie Ascan Crone, Hamburg, Germany
1989
Not Vital: Dessins et sculptures, Centre Culturel Suisse, Paris, France
Akhnaton, Centre of Arts – Akhnaton Gallery, Zamalek, Cairo, Egypt
Not Vital: Sculptures and works on paper, Greenberg Gallery, St. Louis, USA
Galerie Montenay, Paris, France
1988
Galerie Ascan Crone, Hamburg, Germany
Studio Guenzani, Milan, Italy
Plastiken und Zeichnungen, Kunstmuseum Luzern, Lucerne, Switzerland
Not Vital, Curt Marcus Gallery, New York City, U.S.A.
Bronzen (1000 Kacken für ein Kinderspital in Katmandu), Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Salzburg, Austria
18 buatschas, 1000 Bronze – Kuhfladen für ein Kinderspital in Nepal, Kunsthandlung Luciano Fasciati,
Chur, Switzerland
Cacche Di Mucca, Via Farini Galleria, Milan, Italy
Works on Paper, Swiss Institute, New York City, USA
Baron / Boisanté Gallery, New York City, USA
1987
Rudolf Zwirner Galerie, Cologne, Germany
Gallery Nature Morte, New York City, USA
1986
Sculpture and drawings, Margo Leavin Gallery, Los Angeles, USA
Gallery Nature Morte, New York City, U.S.A. Galleria Pinta, Genoa, Italy
1985
Sculptures and Drawings, Willard Gallery, New York City, USA
Sculpturen en Tekeningen, Galerie Barbara Farber, Amsterdam, Holland
1984
Ref. 84, Palud N° 1, Lausanne, Switzerland
Plastiken und Zeichnungen, Galerie Hartmann, St. Gallen, Switzerland, Galerie Nature Morte, NYC, USA
Recent sculptures and drawings, Mendelson Gallery, Pittsburgh, USA
CV
1983
Galerie Nature Morte, New York City, USA
1982
Not Vital, Zeichnungen und Objekte, Gimpel-Hanover + André Emmerich Galleries, Zürich, Switzerland
Kunsthaus Glarus, Glarus, Switzerland
1981
Recent Drawings, Albert White Gallery, Toronto, Canada
Altstadt Galerie, Chur, Switzerland
1980
Gimpel–Hanover + André Emmerich Galleries, Zürich, Switzerland
Mendelson Gallery, Pittsburg, USA
1979
Bündner Kunstmuseum, Chur, Switzerland
1977
Städtische Galerie Zum Strauhof, Zürich, Switzerland
1976
Bündner Kunstmuseum, Chur, Switzerland
1974
Dritte Galerie, Zofingen, Switzerland
1973
Galleria LP 220, Turin
Galleria Diagramma, Milan, Italy
1971
Bündner Kunstmuseum, Chur, Switzerland
CV
PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
Bündner Kunstmuseum, Chur (Switzerland)
Carnegie Institute, Pittsburg (USA)
Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas (USA)
Fonds Municipal d’Art Contemporain, Geneva (Switzerland)
Graphische Sammlung der ETH, Zürich (Switzerland)
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York City (USA)
Kunsthalle Bielefeld, Bielefeld (Germany)
Kunstmuseum Luzern, Lucerne (Switzerland)
Kunstmuseum St. Gallen, St. Gallen (Switzerland)
Kunsthaus Glarus, Glarus (Switzerland)
Musée d’Art et Histoire, Geneva (Switzerland)
Museum der Moderne, Salzburg (Austria)
The Museum of Modern Art, New York City (USA)
Schauwerk Sindelfingen, Sindelfingen (Germany)
The Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (UK)
The Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn (USA)
Toyota Municipal Museum of Art, Aichi (Japan)
REFERENCES AND FURTHER READING
Books
Alma Zevi ‘Not Vital: When Sculpture Becomes a House’, Not Vital. Kerber: 2014.
Alma Zevi ‘Not Vital: Painting Heads’, in Not Vital: Full On. Ullens Centre for Contemporary Art: 2011.
‘Fade to Grey: Jérôme Sans interview with Not Vital at the artist’s studio, Beijing. April 27 2011’, in Not
Vital: Full On. Ullens Centre for Contemporary Art: 2011.
Articles
www.architecturalpapers.ch/index.php?ID=107
www.benbrownfinearts.com/usr/documents/exhibitions/press_release_url/70/not-vital-landscapespress-release.pdf