May 7 – June 20, 2009

Batagianni Gallery Athens presents a site-specific installation with new works by the Berlin-based German artist Rainer Splitt. When entering the gallery the visitor is confronted by a giant sea of paint sprawled upon the floor: 165 kg of a colored polyurethane compound that the artist has poured under our feet. The uneven subtleties of the floor mixed with the gravity and movement of the pouring have created a giant softly-edged organic pool of paint. The high-gloss surface of this “painting” still appears to be liquid and evokes the movement of the viewer: From the far side of the gallery this monstrosity of material seems to dissolve in its surroundings like a reflective landscape trapped in an interior space.

Corresponding wall-pieces reinforce this sense of ambiguity, as two large pouring-boxes (colored basins spray-painted with automobile colors) have been filled and emptied with approximately 120 kg of white enamel. Negation works on the pictural plane, stressing the relevance of the borders. What you see is a surprisingly precise shape, the simultaniously absent yet present form of color and paint.

Replacing The Image by Color could also be a title for Splitt´s new video work. The screen shows the artist on the street, holding one of the dipped boards that became one of his trademarks these last years. Although this mobile painting is almost completely eclipsing the sight of bypassing traffic, the camera´s autofocus reveals the reality of the scene through the colored reflection of the paint.