Page 36 - TOP 10 CONTEMPORARY ARTISTS - Volume VI
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Berlin Portraits physiological qualities, but they rather reflect their
Berlin Portraits represents the project of non-material image, their ethical dimensions and
visualisation of a group of individuals in a spatial their mental and spiritual space. The depictions
installation. The cycle consists of 13 portraits of show the portrayed person’s personality in a
people who lived in Berlin between 1961 and 1989. moving image defined by the presence and absence
They are: Helmut, Werner, Karl, Liselotte, Ingrid, of light generated by an individual painting object.
Monika, Walter, Manfred, Gerhard, Ute, Günter,
Peter and Hans. I am aware that in experiencing reality every
spectator attempts to possess the World and
Each person is depicted with a specific combination the Truth and connect them into a whole. In
of light and shadow, which is reflected by the 13 experiencing the described portraits, it is essential
vertical painting objects onto the wall or onto their that the spectators share their own light and
environment. Their portrait images are created as a shadow with the image of the portrayed person.
reflection of paint, as light and shadow responding This is the only way that the above named and
to the changes in daylight or artificial light in the depicted persons can come to life Here and Now.
environment. They offer the spectators an image And the spectator becomes the active possessor of
that slowly, but constantly changes and warns us the image. “He who possesses the world, but not its
of the necessity of summing the created images image, possesses only half the world because their
into a single one. The portrait depictions do not soul is poor and without possessions,” wrote C. G.
show the portrayed person’s external material and Yung in The Red Book*. (Oto Rimele)
* C. G. Yung, The Red Book – Das Rote Buch, p. 130.
TOP CONTEMPOR ARY ARTISTS WERNER (BERLIN PORTRAITS, 2/13, DETAIL), 2018 PEARL WOOD, COLOUR, WAX, GRAPHITE PENCIL 44.4X3.8X1.5 IN. | 112.9X9.8X4 CM.
PHOTO: DAMJAN ŠVARC
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