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The exhibition at the Malmö' Konsthall "Flying Over Water" features the British artist and film director Peter Greenaway and is a continuation of his 1997 exhibition at Fundacio Joan Miro in Barcelona, in which he explored the Icarus myth. The theme has interested Greenaway for a long time; it entices us to dream, to go beyond ourselves and attempt to achieve the impossible. Icarus, the first casualty of human flight, is the link between different opposites: water and air, sky and sea, to fly or to drown, ambition and failure. His story is permeated by uncertainties and questionmarks. "Flying Over Water" is both ironic and amusing. Using an in-depth, many-sided and aesthetic approach, Peter Greenaway explores and presents all the different aspects of the Icarus myth. Approximately thirty stations present an ingenious mapping of Icarus' aerial journey from its first conception to the fall. What Greenaway asks himself - and the public - includes subjects ranging from the quality' of the feathers (which bird gave its life so that Icarus could fly?), the wind conditions, and the physical attributes of icarus (to be able to fly is it better to be a marathon endurance runner or a muscular sprinter?), to the splash when he fell from the sky into the sea. "Flying Over Water" is an overwhelming lesson in the art of seeing, achieved by displaying objects and events in an unexpected and provocative way. Greenaway guides the observers' eyes, sharpens their perceptions and awakens their attention. Peter Greenaway seduces our senses in order to lead us to what is essential in an installation that is both visual and physical in nature. The installation is entirely specific to this location and combines the Icarus theme with local history and traditions of flight. In this way, Nordic mythology and legends are linked to the classical Icarus myth. The exhibition is the largest individual project in the history of the Malmö' Konsthall. Peter Greenaway studied painting and art history at Walthamstow
College of Art in London, but after some years as an artist in
the mid-1960's his interest in film came to dominate. In his
travels through the different art forms Peter Greenaway has consistently
addressed fundamental questions about the creative process. |