Pavel Büchler's 'Level' at BASE in Florence

Pavel Büchler, winner of the 2010 Northern Art Prize, presents 'Level' at Base/Progetti per l’arte in Florence. The exhibition occupies two neutral rooms with everyday objects—wall clocks, lamps, and two metal buckets—whose meaning is shaped by a copy of Galileo Galilei's 'Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems'. In the first room, a bucket is filled with water to the level of a step; the second bucket contains the water needed to fill the first. The clock in the first room is two minutes ahead of the clock in the second. Natural light illuminates these elements, while a spotlight in the first room shines on an image of a tightrope walker rotated 90 degrees from its 'correct' position. In the second room, the same spotlight illuminates the Galileo book placed on a shelf among art books. The lamp symbolizes human consciousness illuminating knowledge, evoking pause, mental reflection, and measurement. Büchler explores the role of art and the conscious spectator in a post-Internet world.