Zero

ZERO was a group of artists who practised a form of kinetic art using light, movement and monochrome surfaces. Founded in Düsseldorf in 1957 by Heinz Mack and Otto Piene, and later expanded by the arrival of Günther Uecker, ZERO thought of itself less as a style than as a "new beginning", a clean starting point from which art could be reborn after the devastation of the Second World War. The artists abandoned the individual gesture and traditional composition in favour of investigating the vibration of light, optical effects, serial structures and real motion. Uecker created reliefs of nails, Piene made "light ballets", and Mack built metal steles that reflected and scattered light. ZERO built a wide network of connections with European movements, notably the Italian Azimut group and the Dutch Nul. This international optical-kinetic tradition influenced the later development of light art, with which the contemporary media practices of Ukrainian artists also resonate.