
Merz Association,
Linz, Austria
1999
National Center
of Contemporary Art, Moscow
1999
Installation. Acrylic, metal, water, control system.
Art and science are much closer than we can imagine. Trying to illustrate this, Alexander Ponomarev invented a hydro-object, a nonfunctional artistic machine that is meant to demonstrate Archimedes’ principle. Archimedes’ principle says, any object, wholly or partially immersed in a fluid (or gas, or plasma), is buoyed up by an upward force. Archimedes’ force was developed through an artistic happening and symbolically transformed into the force of contemporary art.