Occupying a surface of over 120 sqm, James Turrell’s Ganzfeld Piece «APANI», which was specifically designed for the Arsenale venue, offers spectators of the Biennale Arte 2011 a unique sensual experience.
Turrell’s series of «Ganzfeld» consists of seemingly boundless atmospheric spaces of colour and light. Two usually distinct spaces – the so-called «viewing space» and «sensing space» – become one, allowing visitors to experience a perfect integration of inside and outside space, of reality and art. Visitors are physically immersed in a constantly changing play of light whose source remains hidden. The perceived boundaries of the space turn out to be an illusion. Through this liminal experience of visual perception, the act of seeing becomes a holistic emotional sensation.
«In a lucid dream, you have a sharper sense of color and lucidity than with your eyes open. I’m interested in the point where imaginative seeing and outside seeing meet, where it becomes difficult to differentiate between seeing from the inside and seeing from the outside.» (James Turrell, *1943, Los Angeles)