spiel.17
Jerzy Olek „Play with the Game”
Opening: 25.01.2008, 7pm
Exhibition: 26.01 – 22.02.2008
Opening hours: tue – sa, 2 – 7pm
Play with the game
In spiel.17 Jerzy Olek takes up a 2200 year-old-puzzle and a mathematical treatise entitled “Ostomachion”, which is attributed to Archimedes. The puzzle consists of 14 triangles, quadrangles and pentagons originally forming a square. Like in a similar game, “tangram”, the aim was to rearrange the pieces into the silhouettes of animals or objects. Not until 2003 did the scientists find out that the maximum of composable forms is 17512 and the number of various squares which can be made out of the 14 elements of the puzzle is 536.
In his new works Jerzy Olek plays with the idea of Ostomachion. But it is not about amusement but about longing for the purity of form. Under non-systematic circumstances– given the geometrical complexity– this search results in unpredictability. Despite its constant unatainability, the ideal seduces and invites new attempts.
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