Panamarenko

ENNLFR

An artist, an inventor and a visionary, Panamarenko has conducted an exceptional long-term research on concepts such as space, movement, flying, energy and gravity. His work is a combination of an artistic insight and a technological experimentation.
As an introduction to his practice M HKA has mapped out almost his entire oeuvre in a chronologically and thematicly structured digital platform. M HKA would like to share the gathered information further with the public. Welcome to the digital archive!

Panamarenko

Back
(c)image: LUKAS ART IN FLANDERS VZW, 2009
Prova Car, 1967
Collection M HKA, Antwerp / Collection Flemish Community
Panamarenko
Object , 95 x 200 x 290 cm
tin, cellophane

Prova-Car is a sort of human, poetic version of the Formula-1 racing car. It conjures up images of old, once revolutionary technological prototypes. With works like this Prova-Car, Panamarenko refers to the image of the engineer-artist. At the same time, he relativises the image. Of course, Panamarenko’s ‘inventions’ are not intended to actually work: they are artworks first and foremost. In Panamarenko’s work, technique is a slave to poetry.

"Nuvolari was the best racecar driver in the world before the war.  He just floored it, never braked.  I remember how he wore a kind of pilot's headgear seated in his big 'prova', his test car.  (...)  After WWII the Formula 1 cars got too fast, and then he indeed had to brake."  - Panamarenko

Back