EXHIBIT Extended till August 12
On view at the Orensanz Foundation, New York
172 Norfolk Street, New York, N.Y.10002
For more information call 212-780-0175
Under the only replica of the Sistine Chapel in the world, here in Manhattan, sculptor Angel Orensanz replays his own version of the architectural experience with this new installation. Hundreds of vibrant colored yards float from wall to wall and cascade from the ceilings to the floor. Fabrics dance and bathe the imagination of the observer in a flight of transcendental desire to overcome the dimension of the space. The visitor is part of the experience of the architecture on a stream flowing from Michelangelo.
Orensanz has been intensely attracted by the magnetism of Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel in Rome. He has visited it endless occasions to see it from the floor as Goethe and Schinkel used to do in the first part of the 19th century.
In a turn of magic, in 1986 Orensanz became the owner of the building at Norfolk Street – a powerful, forgotten synagogue in the Lower East side about to be demolished for redevelopment. The building that today houses the Angel Orensanz Foundation for the Arts in New York, turned out to be the very first synagogue in New York City, built by the German Jewish Reform Movement in 1848. The pioneers of progressiveness brought to New York a well-reputed architect from Germany, Alexander Saeltzer, a disciple of the master Schinkel to build a special building that would carry the dimensions of the Sistine Chapel: its soaring 60 feet high ceilings, its rows of windows, the color of its vaults, the identical dimension… an almost perfect match.
Sculptor Orensanz has developed in the past a number of installations in this historic temple including his “Burning universe” (2002) or his “Descent on Mars” (2008).
“The Floating Sistine Chapel” installation can be seen through various formats, including photographs and video pieces from June 15 till June 23, at the Orensanz Foundation in New York, 172 Norfolk Street.
We hope you can join us for the opening on Tuesday, June 15, between 6:00 and 9:00 pm.
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