Delight Edition announces the world premier presentation of a major, comprehensive monograph dedicated to one of the most important contemporary artists, Otto Piene, by the art and architecture historian and curator Ante Glibota at the Rathaus der Landeshauptstadt Düsseldorf (Düsseldorf City Hall), Marktplatz 2, 40213 Düsseldorf (Tel. 0211 89-9), in the presence of the Lord Mayor of the City of Düsseldorf, Mr. Dirk Elbers, on March 29, 2011 at 15:00 h. The artist and the author will both be present.
THE BOOK
The publication of the monograph follows twenty-three years of intensive research on the work and creative adventures of Otto Piene, one of the worldʼs leading avant-garde multimedia artists, who together with Heinz Mack founded Group ZERO in Düsseldorf in 1957.
For twenty-five years he directed the prestigious Center for Advanced Visual Studies (CAVS) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, MA, USA.
Writing, editing and producing this volume has been an enormous challenge because of the complexity of Otto Pieneʼs work and career, and because of the global importance and radiance of his unique artistic approach, ideas and vision that have shaped the international art world over the past fifty years. He has, as few others of his contemporaries have, played a vital and critical role in the development and dissemination of an architecture of the essential themes engendered by new forms of visual arts, multi-media arts and experimental art. His enlightening ideas were promulgated on both sides of the Atlantic, making Otto Piene an indispensable member of the creative and artistic avant-garde of our time.
The work that preceded the bookʼs publication has left a powerful imprint on the two main protagonists and their shared sense of ʻadventureʼ, even as they remained vigilant as to the facts and to the importance of the motives that guided them. In addition to the texts of Ante Glibota and Otto Piene, the volume contains thirty-seven essays specifically written for this publication by internationally renowned art historians, art theorists and artists, which makes this volume a unique entity in the realm of art books.
1 The book is bound in a hard cover with a pellicular dust jacket.
2 It contains 756 pages, approximately 3000 illustrations. The text is bilingual in English and German.
3 It is printed on the finest Fedrigoni Kunstdruck matt paper of 150 gr weight.
4 The size of the book is 30x30cm; it has a thickness of 6 cm and weighs 5.7 kg.5 It is published by Delight Edition Ltd., Paris, and was printed by Grafiche Tintoretto in Treviso, Italy.
6 The price of the book is € 200 plus shipping.
THE ARTIST OTTO PIENE
A multi-faceted artist with numerous creative interests, Otto Piene is not only an essential creator of our times, and one of its most inventive, but he is, without a doubt, one of the most sensitive and attentive observers of the changes occurring between mankind and nature. He carries within himself a structured thought process that in its broad dimension and its philosophical, as well as aesthetical depth enables us to penetrate deep inside the mysteries of art, poetry and life itself.
Otto Piene was born in Bad Laasphe, Westphalia, on April 18th, 1928 and grew up in Lübbecke. He comes from a family of several generations of Protestant ministers. His grandfather had a wide range of interests, including philosophy and ancient mathematics, and authored numerous books.
After returning from military and POW service, Otto Piene in 1948 enrolled in the private Munich art school Blocherer Schule and later in the Hochschule der Bildenden Künste in Munich in 1949. In 1950 he continued his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Düsseldorf (Staatliche Kunstakademie) and Cologne University (Albertus Magnus Universität), where he completed his state examination in philosophy with distinction in 1957. In 1955 he established his first studio at Gladbacherstrasse 69 and founded, together with Heinz Mack, the Group ZERO. In 1964 he moved to the United States and in 1968 became the first international Fellow at the Center for Advanced Visual Studies (CAVS) of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, MA, at the invitation of György Kepes. He succeeded Kepes as Professor and Director of CAVS in 1974 and became MIT Professor Emeritus and CAVS Director Emeritus in 1994.
He has presented more then 130 solo exhibitions and participated in hundreds of group exhibitions. He has staged well over 100 Light Ballet performances and some 100 Sky Events. His work is included in more than 140 of the worldʼs finest museums, including the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) and the Metropolitan Museum in New York City.
Otto Piene and his wife Elizabeth Goldring Piene, live and work at their farm in Groton, Massachusetts. They also have studios in Boston, at MIT, Berlin and Düsseldorf.
THE AUTHOR ANTE GLIBOTA
The art and architectural historian, author and curator, was born in Slivno, Croatia.
He studied at the University of Zagreb and Sorbonne University in Paris and has lived in Paris since 1973, where he has maintained close bonds with artistic and intellectual circles all over the world. In1978 he started to work for the Paris Art Center, active in the fields of experimental film, theatre, modern dance and the fine arts. In 1979 he was appointed artistic director and later, in 1982, director general of the Paris Art Center, a position he held until 1994. He was the commissioner and editor for the event “Olympiad of Arts” that took place in Seoul (South Korea) on the occasion of the 1988 Olympic Games and led to the creation of the largest open air sculpture park in the world. More recently, he was appointed curator and editor of “Art and Sport”, an exhibition organized by Adidas and the IOC for the Olympic Games 2008 in Beijing. As author and publisher of over 200 books and catalogues, and curator of more than 400 exhibitions devoted to contemporary art, architecture and literature, Ante Glibota is a Titular Member of the European Academy of Sciences, Arts and Humanities and an Honorary Member of the American Institute of Architects. In 2004, the China International Culture Exchange Center (CICEC) in Beijing appointed him to a five-year term
as Foreign Counselor for International Cultural Exchanges. Since 2010 he serves as VicePresident and Curator-in-Chief of the Museum of Art and Urbanity in Shanghai. Ante Glibota lives in Paris, France and Shanghai, China
