Entering the Third Millenium with
Roman Opalka
On New Year’s Eve 1999/2000, Opalka opens a public arena for reviewing attitudes towards ‘time’ from various points of view.From France, life glimpses of the artist working in his studio will be linked to multiple time zones via TV-satellites and internet.
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‘The River of Time'
Entering
the 3rd millennium with Roman Opalka
Artist Roman Opalka has painted “time” exclusively
since 1965. Not using symbols as
clocks or calendar dates, he paints a sequence of numbers to
represent the passing of
time. The canvas size, height and style of digits never
changes. Opalka has now passed
the five million mark with over 200 paintings, spending more
than half of his life on this
single oeuvre. It will be completed only when he dies. He
records the numbers as he
counts in Polish, his mother tongue, and photographs his face
at the end of each day’s
painting session. The number paintings, photos, sound and
texts are all elements Opalka
uses for his installations on time. The name of this art work
is: OPALKA 1965/ 1-oo
Roman Opalka invites the world to visit his studio on the
night of December 31st, 1999,
when most people on the globe will celebrate entering the
third millennium. Via satellite
transmission, views of the artist at work from his studio
near Bordeaux, France, will be
broadcast live. Roman Opalka will continue to paint the
sequence of numbers, and
count them out loud as he has done for many years. Nothing
will be special. The
parameters are kept constant to make the passing of time
evident. The progression goes
on, no matter what date mankind has designated a certain day
to be. Scenes of Opalka
painting will be inserted intermittently into the ‘New
Year 2000’ programs of TV stations
who wish to join this thought-provoking project.
The artist says: “ To remind people that there are
various ways of experiencing time,
it seems philosophically and emotionally right to juxtapose
them during a night we
believe to enter the third millennium. I am not alone when I
say that calendars and
watches cannot induce thoughts about our oneness with a
universal whole and our
uniqueness at the same time. Measured time versus experienced
time reveal their distinct
properties best when seen in parallel. My painting is about
the experience of time
passing, not about one selected instant.”
Roman Opalka, born in France in 1931, is a true cosmopolitan
and lived in France,
Poland, Berlin and New York. Before setting out on his
counting voyage “OPALKA
1965/1-oo”, Opalka removed himself in logical steps from
figurative work, searching for
a clear approach to represent the irreversibility of time.
His works are in the collections
of the MOMA, The Guggenheim Museum, New York, The National
Gallery, Berlin, De
Mesnil Foundation, Houston, Centre G. Pompidou, Paris, Toyota
Municipal Museum of
Art, Japan and other institutions. Opalka’s
retrospective exhibitions, participation at the
XIX Biennial of Sao Paolo, and the 1995 Venice Biennial, as
well as his writing
published in several languages brought him world-wide
recognition.
The French ministry of culture and communication finances
this project. France Telekom gives their logistic support.
For more details about Roman Opalka’s concept, please
contact: Stephan Koehler
e-mail: stepler@ibm.net Fax (Japan) +81-(0)52 955 0121,
Tel. (Japan) +81-(0)575-34 8335, Europe +49 (0)171- 642 8080