Introduction

Ugo Rondinone's exhibition Slow Graffiti consists of two new works. The exhibition space is dominated by a tessellated mirror partition (5 x 5 meters) which is positioned in a way to reflect the whole room in fragments, or rather to display a distorted picture of the room in which the sculpture, a clown figure made of polyester, leans passively against the wall. 

Integrated into the partition there are four loudspeakers playing a dialogue typical of Rondinone. To be heard is a woman's voice from the left and a man's voice from the right channel. 

The Beckett-like one-minute dialogue of the two voices talking at cross-purposes, fitted together to make a loop, expresses a depressing purposelessness, regarding content as well as formal aspects. 

The confrontation of these two sculptures, unavoidably combined with the distorted reflection of the beholder, results in an atmosphere of neutralisation of activity, stirred only by the tessellated reflection bringing motion or activity into the picture.

The cardinal role of the clown, to evoke liveliness, fun and activity, briefly, to entertain, is passé. Whagged, haggard. Questions about heteronomy and self-determination, about strict delimitation and outlined identity press for answers. 

Nothing remains unreflected, but a constructive and plot-creating correlation seems impossible. A passive and merely reactive situation, a stalemate symbolises the inevitability of the screen in which the beholder is both a constituent element and a hopelessly passive participant. 

Any given and defined behaviour pattern pauses in a gap and remains in apathetic agony. Removal of operative security. Tabula rasa – everything to be reflected upon again and to be taken in...