Fascination Light – (De)Construction - Light & Space
Extended until 7 August, 2022
On the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the Centre for International Light Art, which opened its doors at the end of May 2001, large-scale light art installations are presented in the three main exhibition rooms, which are not comparable with one another and yet are linked by the themes of construction and deconstruction. The museum concept is based on a site-specific orientation of the room installations, which also applies to the three works in Fascination Light. The sculptural multimedia installations also have a spatial, perspective and emotional effect that actively involves the visitor.
The artist Adela Andea (Texas, USA) is known for her unique kinetic light sculptures. With the help of industrial electronic components, lights, plastic and other industrially manufactured objects, Andea creates futuristic ecosystems that move fluidly between organic shapes and luminous technical structures. With the installation Chaos Incarnate, Andea created an interdimensional space especially for Unna, through which chaos seeps into our reality. The colourful light bodies form irregular and different linear structures that pour over the old stone walls, cross and confuse each other, leaving the visitor disoriented in a chaos of light.
Plane Scape is the title of the second room-filling installation - a joint work by the four artists Wolfgang Bittner (DE), Lyndsey Housden (UK), Yoko Seyama (JP) and Jeroen Uyttendaele (BE). The work, which was already on view in 2012 for the museum's 10th anniversary, examines the relationships between image, sound and space. A walkable forest of thousands of white rubber bands, which reach from the floor to the ceiling, form a labyrinthine grid of vertical lines. The image of a moving, abstract landscape is projected onto it, accompanied by a six-channel sound composition. The work dissolves the distance between screen, projection and viewer: Plane Scape is designed as a space-filling and "accessible" screen in which the visitor can move around.
The installation Spectrum (Frame Version) by Olivier Ratsi (FR) confronts the visitor with a series of 20 LED frames that seem to float in space with mathematical precision positioned one behind the other. Inspired by Newton's light research, Spectrum creates a dialogue between the room and the viewer. The colours of each frame slowly change from red to purple. This organic light composition pulsates - like breath or a wave - towards and away from the viewer. The viewer threatens to lose himself in an almost hypnotic experience. The perfectly constructed perspective of the frame can only be experienced by the observer from a single, precise perspective. All other perspectives are evasive - with regard to the work of art itself, but also with regard to the space with which the work forms a symbiotic unit.
