Writings

The installation, "Between Light, Darkness, Shadow and Materiality - A Journey" and the sculptural works that are an integral part of it were created over the course of four and a half months, from August to December 2024, while a brutal war was raging in our region.

I ask myself, what is the meaning of an act of art, when it takes place in the midst of war?

War is an act of destruction and is the result of unresolved conflicts, the roots of which often go back decades - and perhaps centuries - while art is, by its very nature and when it realizes its true potential, the creation of new forms, new relationships, new realities.

And - perhaps most importantly - it can be, as Kandinsky put it in his book, "On the Spiritual in Art," "the mother of our feelings." In my understanding, art has the potential to give rise to new senses, even new sensitivities in the souls of human beings.

 

When I set out on my journey to create this installation, I made a conscious decision and chose not to lament the horrors of this war but to explore the universal activity of the two poles - light and darkness - and the interaction between them and the material world. 

Light is a mysterious phenomenon. It is essential to all life on Earth, yet it eludes the investigating mind trying to grasp its true nature. While it can be calculated as an optical phenomenon, it remains unfathomable as a material element. It itself is invisible, unless a material body, opaque or semi-transparent, absorbs and reflects it. So, while light illuminates the material world, it is in fact matter that makes light visible to the eye.

However, matter also blocks the path of light and causes the formation of shadow, the eternal companion of light in our world. Light and shadow together reveal and sculpt the three-dimensional forms of material objects.

Light not only reveals material objects in their various forms, sometimes mercilessly, it can also give physical space qualities of warmth and softness, thereby making it inhabitable for humans.

Before the first light of dawn breaks, darkness prevails. We can sense it as a powerful entity, not just the absence of light. Its presence can be daunting, but it can also offer its comforting embrace.

As I focused my attention on these questions, an unfathomable wealth of phenomena unfolded before me. Moments of magic and grace emerged and rose from everyday situations and provided the raw material for my creative process. They gradually crystallised into a story, as the changing interactions between light, darkness, matter, form and shadow became metaphors for universal life processes of beginning, growth, transformation, disintegration (or destruction) and redemption.