Miguel Chevalier and Dieter Lutsch: MORE LIGHT!

A story in instalments and connections

I.Maribor: KiBela – Space for Art

I see what you don't see, which is...
...white. Nooo, rainbow-coloured! White. No way! It is multicoloured. Both, actually. Both? Why, surely, we live in a technological era! Excuse me? How? What does it have to do with our era? Much, much...

Are you aware that in the technological era – which, indeed, we have been inhabiting for some time now – the kindergarten rule that by mixing the primary colours, i.e. red, yellow and blue all shades of colour can be created, all the three of them combining into brown, is no longer the only one? Ever since we have been surrounded by devices such as the colour TV, mobile phone, digital camera and a range of PC and TV digital screens, not only the three primary colours have changed: yellow being replaced by green, which in the digital language combines with red to make – believe it or not – yellow. Although in digital worlds, various combinations of primary colours (red, green and blue) still “make” an abundance of shades of the colour spectrum, an inert-pragmatic user of modern technology will find it particularly surprising that by mixing the three so-called RGB colours we get – again, believe it or not – white! Which means the light!

It is this technological finding based on the light that makes one of the two premises of the exhibition by Miguel Chevalier (a Mexican who lives and works in Paris) and Dieter Lutsch (a Romanian-born German who lives and works in Berlin). With the works exhibited, they actualise and thematise the modern phenomenon of the RGB digital principle of colour mixing.

This, they do at diametrical levels. The work of Chevalier, a computer art pioneer of world renown, incorporates in the very origin of an artwork the principle of mixing colours by addition, and with it the creation of light, thus making it a source resulting in extremely colourful art world. The artist has been creating such worlds since the 1980s, which de facto ranks him among the most pronounced representatives of making intentional progress within art history. As such he can (could) be associated entirely with Monet, who considered the effect of the light one of the major components of his artistic explorations and creations. Selected works by Dieter Lutsch, a representative of young Berlin artists exhibiting boldly at home and abroad, are in diametrical opposition to the “chevalier colour diversity”. This is due to the fact that Lutsch perverts from the digital world to the real alias physical world the RGB principle of colour mixing, which, according to current knowledge – we wish to emphasise – is effected on the digital level only and exclusively: his red, green and blue liquids (no longer beams of light, mind!) thus make a white “product”.

The analogy between the works of Chevalier and Lutsch shows at the level of perceiving both works of art, promising a high level of (emotional) pleasure at the very first sight. Both works comprise many romantic elements. Chevalier's gardens of gigantic fractal flowers of various sizes, colours and shapes primarily fascinate with their generative and interactive principles. These create autonomous virtual seeds that grow, open to the viewer and again disappear, yet there are new seeds emerging, depending on the fact how and how much the viewer nears them (interactivity!). Emerging from liquids of diverse colours and gathering in the rotating container, the white foam not only impresses as an innovation, but also associates de facto the source from which Venus, the goddess of love was born. A reason to feel good!?

But naturally, life remains paradoxical even in the technological era, and according to the lore, “every cloud has a silver lining”, which – to be honest – works both ways, thus both the artworks comprise the capacity for the uncertain, almost anxious. In the most extreme form, this has been foretold by apocalyptic prophets claiming that modern innovation and technological achievements don't promise anything good, leaving us disoriented, empty and so on. The innovation that Lutsch refuses to explain in full, as is often the practice with innovators wanting to keep for themselves the magical, secret and intangible, which then often makes the perceivers reserved, and the flowers from Chevalier's interactive gardens, which as opposed to previous soft organic forms are acquiring increasingly pointed, futurist, crystal shapes, both de facto contain some uncertainties of our time. Therefore, in order not to succumb to uncertainties in 2011, we bid you a special farewell: LIGHT! MORE LIGHT!

II. Berlin: Private View – Platform for contemporary Art and Experiments

I see what you don't see, which is...
...multicoloured? Flowery? Foamy? No. White. Oh, no, not again... Oh yes, but completely different ;-)

Everybody chancing upon Berlin at the turn of the year and wishing to experience the atmosphere building on the story from Maribor, kindly welcome to the pre-opening of another exhibition from the series I see what you don't see, which is..., which is to take place in the afternoon of 31 December 2010, and to the opening on 8 January 2011 between 6 and 9 pm at Private View apart platform, Joachimstrasse 11a (a1), Berlin.

22 December 2010 – 29 December 2010
Opening: 22 December 2010 at 8 pm
Kibela / KIBLA Maribor
Exhibition Curator and Text: Maja Škerbot

Coproduction

KiBela is open every day 9.00 am to 10.00 pm, Saturdays 4.00 pm to 10.00 pm, and closed Sundays.

Kibela, space for art programme is supported by the European EACEA agency (Brussels), Slovenian Ministry of Culture, and the Municipality of Maribor.

Kibela artistic programme is part of the European X-OP project, international exchange of art operators and producers in the field of intermedia, multimedia and visual contemporary art.