The quiet magic of nature
With Light_poesis, Mischa Kuball (*1959, Düsseldorf/DE) breaks through the boundaries of presumably habitual dimensions. The light and mirror installation connects the inside with the outside, combines the light of day and night with the artificial light of the installation and nature makes a brilliant entrance into the exhibition space.
New visual axes and reflections open up immaterial connecting lines, reflections and cross-connections through the glass panes, making it possible to experience the meaning of space and time in a new way. Fragments of momentary situations in nature are transported onto the mirrored surfaces in the exhibition space.
We see trees and bushes in light and shade. We see the leaves in the wind, in the rain, in the mist or in the sun. Mischa Kuball focusses our gaze on the transformative power of what happens in nature, depending on the time of day and season. The brighter it is outside, the more the glass walls of the pavilions become a zone of transition, a shell that increasingly opens up the view of nature.
The rotating mirror plates allow nature outside to enter the room as a virtual image, but also dynamise and parcel it out. In two exhibition halls, Mischa Kuball sets the pulsating light mood of his interventions in dialogue with nature – as well as with the light situations in the landscape. An interplay that stimulates thought, shifts perception and demands a change of perspective.
“With Light_poesis in the Waldfrieden Sculpture Park, I am trying to show people, especially those from the Wuppertal region, the park at a time when nature is regenerating and much of what is associated with nature tends to remain hidden: the inner regeneration in the trunks and roots, the earth, which then bathe the park in a special green dress again in spring with blossoming flowers and leaves.
Ultimately, you see what you know in a familiar place, but in an unfamiliar way, and the fact that the light and the mirrors are dynamic, rotating or brightening – then almost falling silent – creates a special magic that poetically connects with this place. Even in the afternoon hours, dusk falls between the trunks, on the cool ground, and this is reflected by the light, allowing an impressive and unique encounter with the sculpture park. » Mischa Kuball
rotating mirror_horizontal
The horizontally anchored sculpture rotating mirror_horizontal consists of two mirrors that rotate in opposite directions. One side reflects the earth, the ground, while the other reflects the sky and the clouds: both images show their surroundings in their processual nature, in a constantly changing image. It alienates the gaze and the viewer cannot escape his own reflection.
rotating mirror_horizontal is a medium of perception in space that depicts changing weather conditions, plant growth and seasonal cycles as a holistic system. Nature presents itself as a vital, constantly changing entity. In doing so, the sculpture shifts familiar coordinates and blurs the material and topographical contours.
Photos / credits :
| Mischa Kuball | Light_poesis | 2023 Skulpturenpark Waldfrieden | VG Bild-Kunst Bonn 2023 | Foto: Süleyman Kayaalp
| Mischa Kuball | Light_poesis | 2023 Skulpturenpark Waldfrieden | VG Bild-Kunst Bonn 2023 | Foto Michael Richter
| Mischa Kuball | Portrait (documenta_Archiv) | Foto: Nicolas Wefers|
| Mischa Kuball | rotating mirror_horizontal | 2023 Skulpturenpark Waldfrieden | VG Bild-Kunst Bonn 2023 | Foto: Anna Schwartz
| Mischa Kuball | Light_poesis | 2023 Skulpturenpark Waldfrieden | VG Bild-Kunst Bonn 2023 | Foto Michael Richter