On the occasion of the project "Urban Lights Ruhr", which is initiated in its fourth edition by Urban Arts Ruhr, the Skulpturenmuseum Glaskasten Marl shows light art from its own collection in the museum's basement. Works by former lighting art pioneers such as Otto Piene, Uli Pohl (both active in the Zero group) and Dan Flavin on the light art of the 1980s and 1990s with works by Gianni Colombo, Ingo Günther and Cork Marcheschi and contemporary works by light artists such as François Morellet and Mischa Kuball, the sculpture museum offers a broad overview of the history of light art and its development. In its orientation as a museum for classical modernism and contemporary art with a focus on the new media, light art also represents an important thematic area. In the corridor in front of the actual exhibition area, visitors are already expected by a modern Vanitas interpretation by Patrick Raynaud. A naked man in a glass coffin appears to float over his bones, which glow through the body. The entrance area of ​​the actual exhibition space is enchanted by Otto Pienes kinetic "Lichtballett" by moving dynamically through the room and incorporating it into his dance. A collection of globes with different perspectives on the world are presented to us by Ingo Günther as part of the project "Worldprozessor", initiated in 1988 and ongoing . Acoustically, one already perceives another work hidden in a small, gray room, created especially for the work, behind a bright slat blind. Through light and sound the viewer is moved metaphorically into the interior of a ship, which is on the high seas. With his work "Under Way", Douglas Henderson won the European Soundart Award in 2013, which is awarded in two-year intervals in Marl. Somethow hidden, in one of the rear exhibition rooms fascinates Gianni Colombo's "Spazio Curvo", as a waving, hovering, blue glowing "Möbiusband" in a corner of the room. Next to this is the spherical appearance of a sphere, a video work by Giovanni Longo and Peggy Sylopp, which is projected onto the wall, which goes through the entire color "spectrum" and creates a synaesthetic experience in interaction with the chasing sound level. Behind the next corner, Dan Flavin's work lurks with the question "o.T. (who is afraid of red, yellow and blue) "as a reminiscence of the color field paintings by Barnett Newman. Light Art of the another type is e.g. by Walter Giers, who sets his holographys in motion with a typical bastler lighting system. The famous sculpture of a pistol with knots in the barrel by C.F. Reuterswärd can also be found as a holography in the exhibition. The work of Günter Dohr and Cork Marcheschi, who shape the room with their color spectrums, is announce by the typical whirring of the neon tubes, and subtly mixes with the sounds of the "chamber piece" by Mischa Kuball from the next room into the acoustic mood - an arthistorical homage to the "light-space modulator" by Moholy-Nagy. Last but not least, a work of François Morellet, created especially for this place, can be found in a hidden room corner. The equilateral triangle has been sitting there for some years, not always visible, in the trap. Overall, the exhibition not only shows the history of the light art, but also incorporates the thematic foundations of the museum, namely sculpture, video- and soundart.

 

 

Artists:

 

Carl Bucher (1935–2015), Gianni Colombo (1937–1993), Günter Dohr (1936–2015), Dan Flavin (1933–1996), Klaus Geldmacher (*1940), Walter Giers (1937–2016), Ingo Günther (*1957), Douglas Henderson (*1960), Mischa Kuball (*1959), Giovanni Longo (*1959), Cork Marcheschi (*1945), François Morellet (1926–2016), Otto Piene (1928–2014), Uli Pohl (*1935), Patrick Raynaud (*1946), Gerhard Reinert (*1950), Carl Fredrik Reuterswärd (1934–2016), Ferdinand Spindel (1913–1980), Peggy Sylopp (*1966)