The work of Michail Pirgelis (*1976) updates the traditions of post-minimalism, the readymade and conceptual art while simultaneously resisting them. His process usually begins with found materials from aircraft cemeteries in California and Arizona, where disused passenger planes wait to be dismantled and recycled. The Cologne-based artist explores the limits of our understanding of objects, while radically expanding our experience of the sculptural.
Photo: Timo Ohler
Michail Pirgelis
Emotional Tourist
Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther und Franz König
The artist's book Emotional Tourist documents the group of sculptures that Michail Pirgelis has created from segments of exposed airplane floors and carpets over the course of the last twenty years. The focus is on the works in their texture and materiality, with page-filling details that emphasize exposed elements and layers, making the artistic process of abstraction apparent. Thus, the flow of images is repeatedly interrupted and the direction of reading changes. Similar to a sketchbook, images of material cutouts are accumulated like sample pieces, revealing patterned carpet sections, geometric lines or grids, sprayed codes and markings, as well as traces of original functionality. The artist's book concludes with a note on the body of works and a selection of exhibition views.
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