Exhibitions about Light Art – Budapest, Vienna, Frankfurt

The Pleasure of Light – György Kepes and Frank J. Malina, Ludwig Museum, Budapest, September 03, 2010. – November 21, 2010.

The vision and creativity of György Kepes (1906-2001) and Frank Malina (19120-1981) are best characterized by the concept of universality expressed through experimentation in art, science, technology and radical innovation. The notions of interdisciplinary philosophy date back to a renaissance synthesis of knowledge drawing a long arc through art history. Kepes and Malina were pioneers of these revitalized concepts in the last century. Both artists had Eastern European roots and were significantly influenced by modernist theories.

Concrete photo, photogram. New exhibition at the Vasarely Museum of the Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest, 26 May 2010 – 26 September 2010

The photogram, which oscillates on the borderline between photographic art and the fine arts, will guide visitors into the world of freedom, creativity and experimentation through 80 works of art by some 40 artists in the Zichy Museum in Óbuda. Modern art where there was no longer a borderline between genres evolved in the 1920s with one of its prominent representatives being László Moholy-Nagy, perhaps the most well known Hungarian artist worldwide. Concrete Photo, Photogram will exhibit his works together with those by Lucien Hervé, Pierre Cordier, Thomas Freiler and Balázs Czeizel.

Celluloid. Cameraless film, Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt, June 2 – August 29, 2010

As opposed to other forms of experimental film, the material is removed from its conventional context of use and, as it were, interpreted as a canvas by applying diverse artistic processes: painting, drawing, collage on celluloid, scrapes and scratches in the emulsion, defamiliarization through chemical manipulations, or the direct exposure of the photosensitive material. Thus even the early days of avant-garde film saw works that also investigate the filmic image in its material qualities and fathom its relationship to fine arts in ever-new approaches. Inviting the visitor to follow its varied course, the exhibition presents outstanding examples of cameraless film and offers a panorama from the 1930s to the present day with works by 21 international artists and film makers such as Stan Brakhage, Tony Conrad, Cécile Fontaine, Len Lye, Norman McLaren, Dieter Roth, Harry Smith, José Antonio Sistiaga and Jennifer West.

Peter Kogler: Projection, Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt, July 1 – September 12, 2010

The Austrian multimedia artist Peter Kogler is one of the pioneers of computer-generated art. With his impressive 360-degree multiprojection on show at the Schirn from July 1 to September 12, 2010, the artist, whose work was included in two documenta programs, creates a space of illusion that completely captivates the observer. Lines of a uniform grid lose their fixed coordinates and stretch into a play of amorphous figures. All the projected elements undergo a continuous transformation of their specific structure and thus make the room vibrate visually. Sound elements by sonic artist Franz Pomassl contribute to this vibration. The sound produced by home-made devices and instruments from measurement technology and other research fields develops into a sculptural experience in Kogler’s installation. The observer feels the ground disappear from under his feet.

Brigitte Kowanz: Now I See. Mumok, Vienna, 25 June 2010 — 3 October 2010

The Brigitte Kowanz retrospective is a part of a series of exhibitions that the MUMOK is putting on dealing with internationally successful Austrian artists. With the consistent depiction of light and language Kowanz’s work is an exception, in both a local and international context. This is the first time that her varied and complex oeuvre from 1984 up to the present has been honoured to this extent with a presentation of representative wall pieces, installations, and interventions in architectonic space. The essential elements of her current creative work are compressed into an intensive light-space experience in a 450 m² ‘mirrored hall’. During the exhibition encounters with Kowanz’s work in public space have been made possible by two light projects – one on the façade of the MUMOK and one on the Uniqa Tower.