Julio Le Parc, Serpentine Sackler Gallery

Serpentine Gallery, exhibitions
The Serpentine Gallery, London calendar this winter season focusses on geometry – namely, two artists whose works you may never have seen before, but whose use of geometry in art has made them historic figures that you need to know: Argentinian artist Julio Le Parc and German conceptual artist Reiner Ruthenbeck. You'll find Julio Le Parc (born in 1928, now resident in Paris), a master of transforming and animating space through light, at the Serpentine Sackler Gallery, Hyde Park London.
Julio Le Parc, biography
As you walk through Le Parc’s first major show in the UK, look out for traces of his origins. Julio Le Park (abstract painter in the beginning) worked in black and white, and then colour, to depict pre-determined visual systems. From these two-dimensional origins, Le Parc began in the 1960s to create installations of mirrors and moving lights. These labyrinths and ‘game’-style enclosures are pioneering in the way they involve the, often bewildered, audience. In recent years Le Parc has become known for using projected, moving and reflected lights to create works of art that are constantly in flux.
Julio Le Parc, Serpentine Sackler
This exhibition has been designed like an amusement arcade, with various booths opening up different dimensions of Le Parc’s hugely varied artistic output. The works on show range from Le Parc’s early political drawings to the more complex ‘game’ works, including unstable, moving floors and punch bags, and ‘target’ silhouettes which depict various political figures.
Did you know?
Le Parc is no stranger to political controversy. As a founding member of the activist Groupe de Recherche d’Art Visuel (a pun on the French grav, for “serious”), he collaborated on manifestos defending the role of art and the artist within French society. In the wake of the 1968 Paris riots, Le Parc’s activities even led him to being expelled from the city for five months.
Culture Whisper thinks…
After recent major shows at the Casa Daros, Rio (2014) and the Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2013), Le Parc’s Serpentine Gallery exhibition is a highly-anticipated chance to experience his complex, politically-animated installations at first hand. This is an unmissable exhibition in London and will also provide the fabric for a good day out in London, in and around Hyde Park.

Why not attend the Bright Night event, 5th February 7pm, at the Goethe-Institut where an evening of screenings, readings, talks and performances in response to Julio Le Parc's exhibition will tackle the ideas of light, happiness, affect and productivity in contemporary culture. Click here to book.