s Fall / Winter 06 07 - Steidl

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Roni Horn
Rings of Lispector (Agua Viva)
Roni Horn’s remarkable body of work continues to communicate how she imaginatively inhabits the world and
combines a careful study of the role of language in perception. Horn’s unique ability to engage the viewer with a vivid
sense of time and place in her range of sculptures, books, drawings and photographic installations, provide an active
pursuit of self-revelation and the transience of form.
For Horn’s exhibition at Hauser & Wirth London in 2004, the entire floorplan of the main gallery was given over to the
installation of Rings of Lispector. Consisting of interconnecting rubber tiles, the work is inlaid with select passages
from Brazilian writer Clarice Lispector’s book Agua Viva (Stream of Life). Translated by Hélène Cixous, phrases appear
on the floor in circular arrangements, echoing the movement of raindrops on the surface of water. The work embodies
a sense of the dialectic between architectural space and poetic force, encouraging one to experience the rubber
physically underfoot and to view the words from above. This act of location addresses inner emotions with the idea of
landscape.
An important factor in Horn’s conceptual and aesthetic sensibility is her exploration of the possibilities of language as a
sculptural form. Inspired by literary sources, she combines linguistic construction with the dimensions of physical
experience.
Roni Horn was born in New York where she continues to live and work. Recent solo exhibitions of her work include the
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris; Fundacao Serralves, Porto;
Fotomuseum Winterthur and Centre Pompidou, Paris. Her recent publications, Dictionary of Water, This is Me, This is
You, Cabinet of, If on a Winter’s Night…, Her, Her, Her, & Her, Wonderwater (Alice Offshore), Index Cixous (Cix Pax),
have all been published by Steidl.
Roni Horn
Rings of Lispector (Agua Viva)
English / French text
With an essay by Hélène Cixous
Book design by Roni Horn and Studio Achermann
Book 1: 120 pages with 29 color plates
Clothbound hardcover with dust jacket
Book 2 (Agua Viva: Seventeen Paradoxes):
24 pages with 17 color plates
Softcover
Two books housed in a slipcase
11.25 x 8.75 in. / 28.6 x 22.4 cm
US $ 35.00 / £ 20.00 / R 30.00
ISBN 3-86521-149-6
ISBN-13 978-3-86521-149-1
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