LONDON.- An intimate group of marble sculptures by the enigmatic Swiss artist Not Vital will go on display at Ordovas in Savile Row from 10 June until 5 August, coinciding with the first major UK exhibition of Vital’s work at Yorkshire Sculpture Park (21 May 2016 – 2 January 2017), his largest museum project to date. Muntognas, meaning ‘Mountains’ in the Swiss language of Romansch, the native tongue of the artist, presents eight marble, ‘Dali stone’ sculptures made by Vital in 2013. Mined in the Yunnan province of China, the marble has been sliced open to reveal the hidden landscapes within, inextricably linking these striking sculptures to Vital’s birthplace of Sent, a tiny village in the Engadin valley of the Swiss Alps.

“Spending time with Not Vital in his beloved Engadin gave me a very special insight to his universe, and greatly informed my thinking about this exhibition. Arriving by train from Zurich, you cannot take your eyes away from the mountains that surround you,” says Pilar Ordovas. “After my day with Not, taking in his works, and his architectural and sculptural installations, we sat down to have tea and to see the view from his home onto his new painting studio - and of course the mountains. I turned to look at what I thought was a strikingly beautiful painting on his wall to discover one of his creations with a Dali stone. He discovered these stones in China where he has a studio and spends time during the year - to me what was fascinating is how he finds his mountains wherever he goes, home comes with him.”

In China, the word for marble is simply ‘Dali Stone’, such is the renown of the Dali area of Yunnan province for the beauty of the marble that is found there. Vital has devised a very particular arrangement for the installation of the Dali stones within the gallery space; the carefully cut sections of marble are mounted on uniquely shaped plaster forms and placed in an irregular pattern, ranging from floor-based to high on the wall. The search for an easy line of vision is thus thwarted, forcing the viewer to move between the works as if they are separate elements of a wider landscape - from one point catching a glimpse of the subtle white surfaces of Ice and Ice, while from others gazing up into the delicately-veined surface of Mountain, the flowing forms in Waterfall, and rich surface patterns presented in Blood, Glacier, Landscape and Winter Landscape.

Born in 1948, Not Vital grew up among the mountains and forests of the lower Engadin valley, on the border with Austria and Italy. His first language is Romansch, the rarest of Switzerland’s four official languages and spoken only by 35,000 people; by a young age he was fluent in all four. His polyglot abilities crucially feed a life made rich through travel and an enduring sense of enquiry and wonder.

Vital studied in Paris and Rome before moving to New York in 1976. He works primarily as a sculptor, and has also made prints, drawings, paintings and architectural projects throughout his career. Vital leads a nomadic life, and this directly influences his work, as he often engages with local materials and craftsmanship. He took part in Plateau of Humanity, the 49th Venice Biennale in 2001. His work can be seen in major museums around the world, and he has been the subject of solo exhibitions at, among others, the Ullens Centre for Contemporary Art (UCCA), Beijing, China (2011), The Arts Club of Chicago, Illinois, USA (2006), the Kunsthalle Bielefeld, Germany (2005), the Malmö Konsthall, Malmö, Sweden (1997-98). Vital lives and works in Beijing, Rio de Janeiro and Sent.