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Lichtecht
Edgar Lissel & Claus Stolz
20.03. — 20.06.2021
Lichtecht
Edgar Lissel & Claus Stolz
March 20, 2021 — June 20, 2021
digital opening: March 19, 2021 — 7 p.m.
What is photography, in actual fact? This question, among others, is pursued by Edgar Lissel and Claus Stolz. Following entirely different paths, both explore the basic concept and the limits of the photographic, combining media archaeology approaches with contemporary technologies as they do so.
Edgar Lissel (*1965 in Northeim, lives in Vienna) follows a strongly conceptual approach. For example, he converts entire living spaces into pinhole cameras, so that the upside-down picture of the urban exterior on the image’s surface merges with the silhouettes of the furnishings inside. Alternatively, he avails himself of biological phenomena by using certain photosensitive bacteria in the image creation process. The growth process of these bacteria colonies makes pictures visible that would not be reproducible, since in a sense, under the artist’s guidance, they arose through the interplay of light, time, motion and space. Behind this there is a querying of photographic processes, within which Edgar Lissel abolishes the distance between himself and the photographic event that would result from the use of a camera, for instance.
Whereas Edgar Lissel thus evinces a comprehensible closeness and directness to the photographic image, with Claus Stolz (*1963 in Mannheim, resides there likewise) the image bridges sometimes inconceivable distances: In his “Sunburns” there is nothing, apart from a lens that concentrates the sunlight, between the light source and the photographic material. An occurrence extended across approximately 150 kilometres becomes visible in its microscopic effect. This is a radical form of analogue photography, in which the artist plans the controlled fortuity, launches, observes and halts the process. Claus Stolz is committed to photographic experiments with material; the illustrative function immanent in photography is an incidental aspect to him. This latter comes to bear in his series “Kammerspiel”, however. What appears to be precise sharply photographed, luminously colourful blossoms against a dark ground reveals itself as bizarre still life arrangements.
The exhibition is sponsored and supported by the Ministry of Science, Research and the Arts Baden-Wüttemberg within the framework of the impulse program "Kunst trotz Abstand":
exhibition
Deltabeben
29. November 2020 — 28. Februar 2021
digitale Eröffnung: 12. Dezember 2020
Deltabeben. Regionale 2020
In cooperation with the Kunsthalle Mannheim and the Kunstverein Mannheim
November 29, 2020 — February 28, 2021
Every two years, and for the sixth time in 2020, the "Deltabeben" will take place - alternately in Mannheim and Ludwigshafen: A joint exhibition project of the institutions for contemporary art. In the meantime, it has become a continuous overview show of art in the Rhine-Neckar metropolitan region, which shows and documents the artistic diversity again and again. The participating artists* come from all parts of the region between Mannheim, Mainz, Heidelberg and Karlsruhe. Their spectrum ranges from photography, painting, sculptural and installation works to video and performance art. It is not possible to apply for participation, but a changing team of experts from the art scene is asked to propose two artists* each. There is no age limit, but the artists should live and work in the region, because the "Deltabeben" also serves to promote exchange and networking between the individual smaller art scenes in the region. "Deltabeben. Regionale 2020" shows once again how urban and diverse the Rhine-Neckar metropolitan region is with its artists* and their art.
Positionen erweiterter Malerei
Crisis? What Crisis?
Doris Erbacher, Martin Gerwers,
Sophie Innmann, Jonas Maas, Franziska Reinbothe
19. September – 08. November 2020
Eröffnung am 18. September 2020 — 19 Uhr
Crisis? What Crisis?
Positionen of Expanded Painting
Doris Erbacher, Martin Gerwers, Sophie Innmann, Jonas Maas, Franziska Reinbothe
September 19 – November 08, 2020
Painting’s crisis is evoked by critics and curator with reliable regularity. Amid all this, artists simply continue to paint; no trace of any crisis.
That being said, the boundaries of the conventional canvas were overstepped long ago – painting reaches out into the room, it becomes an object, an installation, a released colour. Not even a brush is necessarily needed, for after all, every material has a colour and structure already, painterly values, therefore. In the exhibition, artistic positions are on show that pursue abstract or objectless approaches and probe the space using different strategies.
Doris Erbacher, like Martin Gerwers, sounds out the relationship between colour, shape, light and space. Both occasionally convey their picture carrier into three-dimensional sculpture, and viewers actively moving about the room are called for in every case. Only from various angles and with the play of light and shadow does the actual painterly aspect reveal itself.
Jonas Maas combines rectangular modules to form a picture that uses spacers to hang in front of, rather than on, the wall. At the same time, clearances remain between the individual panels – picture and wall engage with each other.
Franziska Reinbothe goes one step further the moment the picture is about to be finished: She breaks or saws up the stretcher frame, folds or sews up the canvas and thus gives the picture a new, often sculptural form.
Sophie Innmann usually works location-specifically and makes space an integral component of her works. Contingency, the traces of human actions, and time are often determining factors of her works.
In all these works, genre boundaries are blurred; the surface – space – viewer relationship always plays a central role. And yet painterly issues are in the foreground.
Doris Erbacher, *1953, lives and works in Heidelberg and Mannheim. Erbacher studied from 1974-80 at the State Academy of Fine Arts Stuttgart, from 1986-91 she directed the Kunstraum Erbacher in Mannheim, and from 1992 until 2009 she lived as an artist and filmmaker in Berlin.
Martin Gerwers, *1963 lives and works in Düsseldorf. From 1984-89 Gerwers studied Visual Communication at the Aachen University of Applied Sciences and subsequently from 1989-93 at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. From 2015 until 2018 he held a visiting professorship at the Berlin University of the Arts.
Sophie Innmann, *1986 lives and works in Karlsruhe and everywhere in the world, since her works mostly arise in situ. From 2007 until 2014 she studied at the State Academy of Fine Arts Karlsruhe.
Jonas Maas, *1985 lives and works in Düsseldorf, 2010-14 studies at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf.
Franziska Reinbothe, *1980 lives and works in Leipzig, from 2005 until 2013 she studied at the Academy of Fine Arts Leipzig.
GUIDED TOURS
Thursday, 29 October 2020, 6 p.m. with Konstantin Weber
Abbildung: DiamondProx Joscha Steffens
Mannheimer Kunstpreis
der Heinrich-Vetter-Stiftung
Joscha Steffens | Hannah Schemel
July 18, – August 30, 2020
Mannheim Art Prize of the Heinrich Vetter Foundation 2020
Prize-winners’ Show featuring Joscha Steffens and Hannah Schemel
The Mannheim Art Prize of the Heinrich Vetter Foundation is the mark of support given by the City of Mannheim and the Heinrich Vetter Foundation to professional artists living and working in the metropolitan region. This year sees the eighth edition of the prize, which is awarded for photography and video.
The five-member jury of experts, comprised of Dr Sebastian Baden (Kunsthalle Mannheim), Carolin Ellwanger (Kulturamt Mannheim), Dr Heike Feldmann (Heinrich Vetter Foundation), Stefanie Kleinsorge (Port25 – Raum für Gegenwartskunst) and Thomas Schirmböck (Zephyr-Raum für Fotografie), emphasized the extraordinarily high quality of the numerous entries as well as the great diversity of artistic approaches. Following intense deliberations, Andrea Eßwein, Ruth Hutter, Emanuel Raab, Hannah Schemel, Peter Schlör, Miriam Stanke, Claus Stolz, Joscha Steffens and Felicitas von Lutzau entered the final round.
As was the case in 2018, the jury opted in favour of dividing the prize into a main prize and an advancement award. The main prize, endowed with 10,000 Euro, ultimately went to Joscha Steffens and the advancement award, endowed with 5,000 Euro, to Mannheim-based photographer Hannah Schemel.
Joscha Steffens (*1981) represents the jury’s choice of an artist who deals with forms of feigned and staged violence in digital and virtual realities and thematizes controversial phenomena of our present day. Joscha Steffens’s photographs and video works range between documentation and fiction.
Hannah Schemel (*1994) places great value on artisanship, materiality and reduction. Her procedure is strongly informed by her intense dealing with Japanese culture. Auratic photographs of a special quality are produced in an artisanally sophisticated manner using a refined mixed technique.