“Sound art –sound art that uses sound as a material. The most common type of sound art is sound sculptures, installations and soundscapes.
Zimoun, a forty-five-year-old artist from Switzerland, a musician and a talented visual artist, creates unique and stunning musical sculptures that recreate different sounds. He’s credited with creating dozens of amazing sculptures on his own or in collaboration with other artists, designers and architects.
The musical sculpture, consisting of two thousand 70X70 cm cardboard boxes with 200 small DC motors, was created together with architect Hannes Zweifel. This amazing sculpture is exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art “MNAC” in Bucharest, Romania. A flexible wire is attached to the motors and it rotates and strikes a cardboard box, producing a sound reminiscent of the rustling of heavy rain or the banging of a thousand electric sewing machines.
Zimoun was born in Switzerland in 1977. Currently living and working in Bern. His original work has been featured in numerous solo and group exhibitions around the world from Tokyo to New York. Zimoun has been awarded prizes at numerous art fairs, many of which he has attended as a guest speaker.
His amazing work has been featured in world-renowned exhibitions located at: The Nam June Paik Art Centre in South Korea, the Ringling Art Museum in Florida, USA, Galerie Denise Rene in the French capital city of Paris, the Harnett Museum of Art in Richmond, Virginia, USA, the Museum of Fine Arts in Bern, Switzerland, and many others.
The Swiss artist never ceases to amaze viewers with his original sound sculptures based on mechanical movement and artificially produced sounds. Numerous critics have called these sculptures “rather graceful and playful mechanical harmonies, paradoxically born out of monotonous repetition and the will of chance.”.
The new work is haphazardly stacked empty cardboard boxes, resonating sounds from beating the cardboard with spinning flexible wires. This installation clearly demonstrates to viewers the acoustic capabilities of simple materials, space and the movement of simple mechanisms.
Zimoun has already got followers and imitators, including local designers and artists.
This music sculpture sounds fascinating and one-of-a-kind! I’m really intrigued by this cardboard resonator created by artist Zimoun. Is it designed to produce any particular type of music or sound? How does the cardboard material contribute to the overall aesthetic and sonic experience? I’d love to learn more about the creative process behind this unique artwork.