blog
December, 2023
Interview: Yvonne Andreini, Berlin based artist
Dear Yvonne,
after you were already part of our group exhibition PERSPEKTIVE NO.I in the gallery this summer, and we were also pleased to present ourselves together with you and three further artists at the Berlin art fair POSITIONS 2023, we are now showing the first solo exhibition of your works together in the HOTO gallery.
But let‘s start from the beginning: When did you move to Berlin, how did you get into art and where did you learn?
I‘ve been in Berlin since 2004, until then I lived in Rome, where I was also born.
I‘ve always felt the need for a different kind of communication that goes beyond words, that reveals spaces, shadows and question marks. I have always drawn, so it was clear to me early on that I wanted to explore this medium. So I moved to Berlin to create a contrast to the "eternal city“ for myself and studied painting here.
In your work you deal a lot with still lifes, but at the same time your paintings are full of movement. How does that come about? What interests you about still lifes?
It is precisely this contrast that interests me: Whilst things appear still and immobile, they also have a relationship with the space they are in and sometimes with the people they interact with. I see these elements as a whole, inseparable from each other, a singular mass that is constantly moving and changing.
When you sit down to work on a new piece, where do you get your motifs from?
I often create paintings from photos that I have taken of real situations, still lifes, but also people in situations where they come together. I usually only need these as an occasion to then decompose them and abstract them more and more in a multilayered process until the movement, the rhythm of the things together becomes visible.
You started drawing and now you paint mostly on large-format canvases. But even those often seem - through their lines, for example - as if they were a further development of a drawing. How do you combine drawing and painting in your works?
It was and is a long process to find a way to treat both line and surface equally; it is always a challenge and a motor for me to develop my own visual language that unites them.
When you look at a still life, a table full of food, a bouquet of flowers or a bowl of fruit. What do you see first? Is it shapes, colours or perhaps the ambience of the overall composition? And how do you develop your impressions further in your work?
What interests me most and first is how things work together, how they relate to each other and how I can develop strategies to make them all re-sonate with each other. So it may be that all that remains of an apple is a reminiscence of the skin so that it can connect with the book at the other end of the table …
Thank you Yvonne for your work and inspiration that you bring to the HOTO gallery!
Interview: Yvonne Andreini, Berlin based artist
Dear Yvonne,
after you were already part of our group exhibition PERSPEKTIVE NO.I in the gallery this summer, and we were also pleased to present ourselves together with you and three further artists at the Berlin art fair POSITIONS 2023, we are now showing the first solo exhibition of your works together in the HOTO gallery.
But let‘s start from the beginning: When did you move to Berlin, how did you get into art and where did you learn?
I‘ve been in Berlin since 2004, until then I lived in Rome, where I was also born.
I‘ve always felt the need for a different kind of communication that goes beyond words, that reveals spaces, shadows and question marks. I have always drawn, so it was clear to me early on that I wanted to explore this medium. So I moved to Berlin to create a contrast to the "eternal city“ for myself and studied painting here.
In your work you deal a lot with still lifes, but at the same time your paintings are full of movement. How does that come about? What interests you about still lifes?
It is precisely this contrast that interests me: Whilst things appear still and immobile, they also have a relationship with the space they are in and sometimes with the people they interact with. I see these elements as a whole, inseparable from each other, a singular mass that is constantly moving and changing.
When you sit down to work on a new piece, where do you get your motifs from?
I often create paintings from photos that I have taken of real situations, still lifes, but also people in situations where they come together. I usually only need these as an occasion to then decompose them and abstract them more and more in a multilayered process until the movement, the rhythm of the things together becomes visible.
You started drawing and now you paint mostly on large-format canvases. But even those often seem - through their lines, for example - as if they were a further development of a drawing. How do you combine drawing and painting in your works?
It was and is a long process to find a way to treat both line and surface equally; it is always a challenge and a motor for me to develop my own visual language that unites them.
When you look at a still life, a table full of food, a bouquet of flowers or a bowl of fruit. What do you see first? Is it shapes, colours or perhaps the ambience of the overall composition? And how do you develop your impressions further in your work?
What interests me most and first is how things work together, how they relate to each other and how I can develop strategies to make them all re-sonate with each other. So it may be that all that remains of an apple is a reminiscence of the skin so that it can connect with the book at the other end of the table …
Thank you Yvonne for your work and inspiration that you bring to the HOTO gallery!
Oktober 20, 2023
Interview: Hannah Tharann, Berlin based artist
Liebe Hannah, du studierst Freie Kunst an der UDK in Berlin. Wie war dein künstlerischer Werdegang bisher?
Ich studiere seit 2017 an der UdK. Zunächst in der Klasse von Burkhard Held und seit 2021 in der Klasse von Nadira Husain und Marina Naprushkina.
Neben einigen Gruppenausstellungen nahm ich an verschiedenen Artist in Residency Programmen teil. Aktuell werde ich von der Dorothea Konwiarz Stiftung gefördert.
Deine Malerei wirkt wie aus einer anderen Welt, vielleicht einem Traum, hat etwas surreales: Was inspiriert Dich? Gibt es wiederkehrende Themen/Figuren, die Du in Deinen Werken behandelst?
Ich mag die Stimmung, die an einen Traum erinnert. Eine Schnittstelle zwischen Realität und Illusion. Ein Ort, an dem erfahrenes und gedachtes oft zu Bildern verschwimmen, die nur während des Traumes Sinn ergeben und danach wieder zerfließen, wenn man die Erinnerung greifen will. Es gibt Teile, die zuordnungsbar sind und Teile, die stören oder verwirren.
Für die Ausstellung bei Hoto wurde ich stark von theoretischen Ansätzen inspiriert, die sich mit Verwandlung und dem “Anders-werden” auseinandersetzen, auch explizit mit dem Tier Werden. Dies ist allerdings metaphorisch gemeint und steht als Synonym für das Anders-Werden und das Aufbrechen von binären, hierarchischen Strukturen, die uns oft beschränken.
Das Element, was sich bisher wohl durch alles zieht, sind der Mensch und die Körperlichkeit. Davon ausgehend behandele ich unterschiedlichste Themen.
Dein Medium ist vor allem die Malerei, doch in letzter Zeit setzt Du Dich auch mit Dreidimensionalität auseinander. - Wie kam es dazu? Und was interessiert Dich dabei?
Ich denke auch in der Malerei, auch wenn sie sich klassisch in 2-D zeigt, spielt 3-Dimensionalität immer eine große Rolle. Für mich ergänzen sich die beiden Medien total gut. Es macht mir Spaß und ich finde es nicht zuletzt für den Ausstellungsraum so wie das Narrativ der Ausstellungsthematik interessant und für die Ausstellung bei Hoto sogar notwendig. Durch ein weiteres Medium wird sich dem Thema aus einer anderen Perspektive genähert. Jedes Medium hat Eigenheiten, etwas darzustellen und zu behandeln und befruchtet und aktiviert womöglich wiederum ein anderes - sowohl im Schaffensprozess als auch im Ausstellungsraum. So sehe ich das Nutzen verschiedener Medien generell als Ansatz, eine weitere Ebene oder Perspektive mit einzubeziehen.
In Deiner Ausstellung in der Galerie HOTO geht es um Verwandlung oder einen Übergang von Wesensformen. Was sind das für Wesen? Worin besteht die Verwandlung?
Es handelt sich eigentlich um den Menschen. Um den menschlichen Körper und um das menschliche Sein. Verhandelt werden diese Themen in einer sehr figurativen Sprache in meinen Bildern. Es geht auch hier unter anderem um eine Schnittstelle. Um das Äußere, physische und unsere Identität. Der Ausdruck “body politics” beschreibt das denke ich ganz gut. Unsere Körper (z.B. Aussehen, Ethnizität, Gender, Alter,...) sind immer auch Teil politischer Entscheidungen, sozialen Normen und kulturellen Diskursen.
Inwieweit korrespondieren die Werke der Ausstellung miteinander oder stehen sie für sich?
Jedes Bild und jeder Kokon kann als einzelne Komponente betrachtet werden, die für sich geschlossen steht, und neben der anderen Arbeiten zu einem ganzen Bild heranwächst.
Das Zusammenspiel der Bilder und Skulpturen nähert sich der Thematik umfassender als ein einzelnes Bild. Auch technisch gibt es immer wiederkehrende Elemente, die sich in mehreren Bildern finden und somit eine Verwandschaft eingehen.
Danke Hannah!
August 25, 2023
Interview: Bastian Gehbauer, Berlin based artist
Interview: Bastian Gehbauer, Berlin based artist
Dear Bastian, you studied photography at the
Ostkreuzschule in Berlin, at the Academy of
Fine Arts in Leipzig and at the Academy of
Fine Arts in Stuttgart, yet you do not describe
yourself exclusively as a photographer.
Why not?
B.G.: First of all, apart from the Ostkreuzschule, I mainly studied fine arts, just with a focus on photography, which means that other media were also covered extensively. The term "photographer“ is often associated with a ste- reotype that is rather exclusive and makes one think of commercial or journalistic work my practice is very far from this. Basically, it is not the term "photographer“ that is misleading, but rather what most people associate with it.
To what lengths do you go with your art out- side the realm of photography?
B.G.: In concrete terms, my art moves beyond photography as soon as it enters the physical space, that is, when it takes on the characteristics of installation. This further development resulted from my stringent involvement with spaces, meaning the three-dimensional, which I only showed in the two-dimensional form of pictures. Therefore, I feel it is consequential to go more into the space, moving away from the wall.
In your current works you explore interiors, natural spaces, as well as transience on dif- ferent levels. It seems that you want to pre- serve something in your works, even if it is already gone. What is it that you want to capture? What do you want to make visible?
B.G.: In the exhibited works it is less about wanting to hold on to something and more ab- out recognizing what is already lost. They are memories that I am trying to manifest. Memo- ries of a pavilion that stood 3 km from here in a country that no longer exists, of architects who had to leave their homeland because of racist mania, of an alpinist whose life‘s work was almost wiped out because he was Jewish. If I think about it, perhaps it is the works of the aforementioned that I want to preserve - but not as they are, but as I see them. Or perhaps it is simply what the title suggests, my need to memorialise places, that I have never been.
In the exhibition at the HOTO gallery, you are showing works in which you deal, among ot- hers, with spaces that were destroyed in their originality during the Nazi regime because their architects were Jews. How do you deal with the brutality which is inherent in this case of "transience“?
B.G.: Transience as such is brutal, always and in every form, because it shows the finiteness of us all.
I originally became interested in iconoclasm or the wanton destruction of architecture because the IS blasted the Baal Temple in Palmyra in 2015, which left me speechless. But the topic has also been occupying me for years in local contexts, for example, as you know, in Berlin the Palace of the Republic was replaced by the City Palace. Basically, you only have to look and you realize how demo- crats or fascists, religious fanatics etc. cement
their own world view in the truest sense of the word by designing or destroying architecture. Unfortunately, this also applies to the Federal Republic of Germany, the German Democratic Republic as well as Nazi Germany and the Wei- mar Republic, but via the circuitous route of the aforementioned, I finally came across buil- dings that were a thorn in the side of the Nazis. What distinguishes the Nazis from all others, except perhaps the IS, in their wanton destruc- tion of architecture is a personal satisfaction they derived from it, which I would like to assu- me in kitchen psychology.
This can be explained well using the example of the Arnold Zweig House, which Harry Ro- senthal designed and to which I refer in my work Phantasma (2022). The building was not simply flattened to the ground to make any memory of it impossible, but it was rebuilt by the air force general Kaupisch in order to re- Germanise it in style, so to speak. He wanted to make it visible for all the world that he had erased the Jewish-modernist "disgrace“ as he called it, in favour of a form that he defined as German. He wanted to set up a monument to his "achievement“ which, through its per- manent presence, desecrates the memory of everything that represents the spirit of moder- nism. This business is so perfidious and cynical that I can only see parallels in the actions of the IS.
Your medium is photography - as the basis of your works. How do you work with this me- dium? What role does the size of a print play?
B.G.: I work with photography in two ways, either I take pictures myself or I make use of already existing picture sources. What both processes have in common is that you have to make a decisive selection. When I move through the world to take photographs, I cut out a certain part of it that is relevant to me by cropping the image. I do the same in the archive. As a scholarship holder of the German Photographic Library, I spent a lot of time in the archive this year, so this time I decided to exhibit purely archival works.
To get an idea: I have looked at more than 120,000 historical photographs as an essence of this, I will not use more than 3 dozen of them for exhibitions, some of them can be seen now here, others next year on another occasion.
Apart from the choice of subject, the presentation plays a decisive role.
For example, I enhance the abstract content of a photograph by making the format stark- ly different from what it depicts. In this way, buildings in a small format easily look like mi- niatures. If, on the other hand, I print the same building very large, I create a real, almost immersive character; you have the feeling of being able to immerse yourself in a pictorial world. I have often used this circumstance in this exhibition to give the viewer the opportuni- ty to become part of something that no longer exists.
An installation can be seen in the gallery: Parts of a former café that stood first in Berlin and then in Dresden during the GDR era. Why was it important to you to bring parts of this place back to Berlin in connection with the exhibition at the HOTO gallery?
B.G.: Just as photographs refer to something that lies outside themselves, to what they de- pict, I also see the single construction elements of the Boulevard | Pinguin Café as a reference to an architecture that once existed and now no longer exists; similarly, a photograph is the manifesto of a moment that no longer exists. So basically, the installation is also a relic - the mere existence of outsourced construction parts illustrates that this building as such no longer exists. Unlike regular, stone buildings, however, it can be dismantled and imme- diately rebuilt, which contains a principle of hope and diminishes the power of the final -. I find it somehow comforting to be able to get hold of this building in some way and bring it back to Berlin, from where it started its jour- ney to Dresden more than 50 years ago. But as you can see in the exhibition, I am not interested in reconstructing the building in parts, that would be a caricature for me.
We have already discussed what you want to communicate to the viewer, but what does the confrontation with these places evoke in you personally?
What attraction do you feel to those places?
B.G.: Maybe I feel a kind of longing, for a per- fect world of clear stringent architecture and untouched monumental nature.
(laughs)
Thank you Bastian for your work and inspira- tion that you bring to the HOTO gallery!
Why not?
B.G.: First of all, apart from the Ostkreuzschule, I mainly studied fine arts, just with a focus on photography, which means that other media were also covered extensively. The term "photographer“ is often associated with a ste- reotype that is rather exclusive and makes one think of commercial or journalistic work my practice is very far from this. Basically, it is not the term "photographer“ that is misleading, but rather what most people associate with it.
To what lengths do you go with your art out- side the realm of photography?
B.G.: In concrete terms, my art moves beyond photography as soon as it enters the physical space, that is, when it takes on the characteristics of installation. This further development resulted from my stringent involvement with spaces, meaning the three-dimensional, which I only showed in the two-dimensional form of pictures. Therefore, I feel it is consequential to go more into the space, moving away from the wall.
In your current works you explore interiors, natural spaces, as well as transience on dif- ferent levels. It seems that you want to pre- serve something in your works, even if it is already gone. What is it that you want to capture? What do you want to make visible?
B.G.: In the exhibited works it is less about wanting to hold on to something and more ab- out recognizing what is already lost. They are memories that I am trying to manifest. Memo- ries of a pavilion that stood 3 km from here in a country that no longer exists, of architects who had to leave their homeland because of racist mania, of an alpinist whose life‘s work was almost wiped out because he was Jewish. If I think about it, perhaps it is the works of the aforementioned that I want to preserve - but not as they are, but as I see them. Or perhaps it is simply what the title suggests, my need to memorialise places, that I have never been.
In the exhibition at the HOTO gallery, you are showing works in which you deal, among ot- hers, with spaces that were destroyed in their originality during the Nazi regime because their architects were Jews. How do you deal with the brutality which is inherent in this case of "transience“?
B.G.: Transience as such is brutal, always and in every form, because it shows the finiteness of us all.
I originally became interested in iconoclasm or the wanton destruction of architecture because the IS blasted the Baal Temple in Palmyra in 2015, which left me speechless. But the topic has also been occupying me for years in local contexts, for example, as you know, in Berlin the Palace of the Republic was replaced by the City Palace. Basically, you only have to look and you realize how demo- crats or fascists, religious fanatics etc. cement
their own world view in the truest sense of the word by designing or destroying architecture. Unfortunately, this also applies to the Federal Republic of Germany, the German Democratic Republic as well as Nazi Germany and the Wei- mar Republic, but via the circuitous route of the aforementioned, I finally came across buil- dings that were a thorn in the side of the Nazis. What distinguishes the Nazis from all others, except perhaps the IS, in their wanton destruc- tion of architecture is a personal satisfaction they derived from it, which I would like to assu- me in kitchen psychology.
This can be explained well using the example of the Arnold Zweig House, which Harry Ro- senthal designed and to which I refer in my work Phantasma (2022). The building was not simply flattened to the ground to make any memory of it impossible, but it was rebuilt by the air force general Kaupisch in order to re- Germanise it in style, so to speak. He wanted to make it visible for all the world that he had erased the Jewish-modernist "disgrace“ as he called it, in favour of a form that he defined as German. He wanted to set up a monument to his "achievement“ which, through its per- manent presence, desecrates the memory of everything that represents the spirit of moder- nism. This business is so perfidious and cynical that I can only see parallels in the actions of the IS.
Your medium is photography - as the basis of your works. How do you work with this me- dium? What role does the size of a print play?
B.G.: I work with photography in two ways, either I take pictures myself or I make use of already existing picture sources. What both processes have in common is that you have to make a decisive selection. When I move through the world to take photographs, I cut out a certain part of it that is relevant to me by cropping the image. I do the same in the archive. As a scholarship holder of the German Photographic Library, I spent a lot of time in the archive this year, so this time I decided to exhibit purely archival works.
To get an idea: I have looked at more than 120,000 historical photographs as an essence of this, I will not use more than 3 dozen of them for exhibitions, some of them can be seen now here, others next year on another occasion.
Apart from the choice of subject, the presentation plays a decisive role.
For example, I enhance the abstract content of a photograph by making the format stark- ly different from what it depicts. In this way, buildings in a small format easily look like mi- niatures. If, on the other hand, I print the same building very large, I create a real, almost immersive character; you have the feeling of being able to immerse yourself in a pictorial world. I have often used this circumstance in this exhibition to give the viewer the opportuni- ty to become part of something that no longer exists.
An installation can be seen in the gallery: Parts of a former café that stood first in Berlin and then in Dresden during the GDR era. Why was it important to you to bring parts of this place back to Berlin in connection with the exhibition at the HOTO gallery?
B.G.: Just as photographs refer to something that lies outside themselves, to what they de- pict, I also see the single construction elements of the Boulevard | Pinguin Café as a reference to an architecture that once existed and now no longer exists; similarly, a photograph is the manifesto of a moment that no longer exists. So basically, the installation is also a relic - the mere existence of outsourced construction parts illustrates that this building as such no longer exists. Unlike regular, stone buildings, however, it can be dismantled and imme- diately rebuilt, which contains a principle of hope and diminishes the power of the final -. I find it somehow comforting to be able to get hold of this building in some way and bring it back to Berlin, from where it started its jour- ney to Dresden more than 50 years ago. But as you can see in the exhibition, I am not interested in reconstructing the building in parts, that would be a caricature for me.
We have already discussed what you want to communicate to the viewer, but what does the confrontation with these places evoke in you personally?
What attraction do you feel to those places?
B.G.: Maybe I feel a kind of longing, for a per- fect world of clear stringent architecture and untouched monumental nature.
(laughs)
Thank you Bastian for your work and inspira- tion that you bring to the HOTO gallery!
©Tim Sonntag
May 11, 2023
Interview: Marco Reichert, Berlin based artist
You have been working as an artist for over 15 years. Can you briefly describe your artistic career? Where did you learn? What experiences have shaped you over the years?
I studied painting at the Weißensee School of Art with Katharina Grosse, Werner Liebmann and Antje Majewski. Prior to that, I spent three semesters studying computer science at Humboldt University, which I initially considered a waste of time. However, I later realized how much this knowledge would be linked to my work.
You work with a kind of painting machine in your art. How did you come to do that?
It wasn't a planned concept, but rather something that developed over time. The first works that involved a "machine" were large-format drawings made with a small, remote-controlled snow caterpillar. I was able to paint geometric shapes at a physical distance while keeping an eye on the whole composition thanks to the construction of the model vehicle. This evolved over the years into different vehicles that became part of my process.
Your work "15 Boxes" refers to the files found in Donald Trump's estate and features written images of documents. What media inspire you to create a new work?
"15 Boxes" is a deliberately politicized work with a concrete provenance. The titles of the individual sheets are a source reference from the FBI files. While the visual origin is so direct and charged with content, my way of working is often more diffuse. I frequently make 3D scans of surfaces that have a direct influence on the shape of the lines. However, the influence of art, music, films, and other impressions that I encounter is just as important, albeit more difficult to capture.
How do you work with the machine? What role does it play in your artistic process? What preparatory and finishing work is necessary?
The machine has become an integral part of my routine, but it remains a tool. Nevertheless, its influence on my way of working is significant. The fact that the machine is self-built is just as important as the unpredictable "disturbances" or "glitches" that emerge during the process, which have an inseparable digital and analog/physical part.
Many of your works feature forms that fill your paintings, which resemble fingerprints or skulls. Can you tell us more about these forms and what they represent?
There are no roots abstracted from reality here. The form is also the result of a process-based way of working and developed over years.
In your current exhibition at HOTO gallery, you're collaborating with music producer and techno DJ Discrete Circuit. How did this collaboration come about, and what does it look like?
We met on the street, common friends, similar interests, and the same regular café. We had the idea to collaborate for a long time and finally made it happen. But again, the path was not predictable. We went into the studio without a concrete goal, but played, made, and discovered. This resulted in the audio file, to which the generative visualization reacts directly and in real time.
We are very happy to be able to show a solo exhibition with you again. Thank you Marco!
Interview: Marco Reichert, Berlin based artist
You have been working as an artist for over 15 years. Can you briefly describe your artistic career? Where did you learn? What experiences have shaped you over the years?
I studied painting at the Weißensee School of Art with Katharina Grosse, Werner Liebmann and Antje Majewski. Prior to that, I spent three semesters studying computer science at Humboldt University, which I initially considered a waste of time. However, I later realized how much this knowledge would be linked to my work.
You work with a kind of painting machine in your art. How did you come to do that?
It wasn't a planned concept, but rather something that developed over time. The first works that involved a "machine" were large-format drawings made with a small, remote-controlled snow caterpillar. I was able to paint geometric shapes at a physical distance while keeping an eye on the whole composition thanks to the construction of the model vehicle. This evolved over the years into different vehicles that became part of my process.
Your work "15 Boxes" refers to the files found in Donald Trump's estate and features written images of documents. What media inspire you to create a new work?
"15 Boxes" is a deliberately politicized work with a concrete provenance. The titles of the individual sheets are a source reference from the FBI files. While the visual origin is so direct and charged with content, my way of working is often more diffuse. I frequently make 3D scans of surfaces that have a direct influence on the shape of the lines. However, the influence of art, music, films, and other impressions that I encounter is just as important, albeit more difficult to capture.
How do you work with the machine? What role does it play in your artistic process? What preparatory and finishing work is necessary?
The machine has become an integral part of my routine, but it remains a tool. Nevertheless, its influence on my way of working is significant. The fact that the machine is self-built is just as important as the unpredictable "disturbances" or "glitches" that emerge during the process, which have an inseparable digital and analog/physical part.
Many of your works feature forms that fill your paintings, which resemble fingerprints or skulls. Can you tell us more about these forms and what they represent?
There are no roots abstracted from reality here. The form is also the result of a process-based way of working and developed over years.
In your current exhibition at HOTO gallery, you're collaborating with music producer and techno DJ Discrete Circuit. How did this collaboration come about, and what does it look like?
We met on the street, common friends, similar interests, and the same regular café. We had the idea to collaborate for a long time and finally made it happen. But again, the path was not predictable. We went into the studio without a concrete goal, but played, made, and discovered. This resulted in the audio file, to which the generative visualization reacts directly and in real time.
We are very happy to be able to show a solo exhibition with you again. Thank you Marco!
___________
April 6, 2023
Interview: Lea Mugnaini, artist-in-residence at HOTO
Tell us how you actually came to your artistic work. How long have you been working as an artist and how did you get there?
I was six when for the first time I realized what art was, and what it represented to me. (Disclaimer, I come from a family of creatives).
The incredible work Der Lauf der Dinge, a 16-mm-Color-film by Peter Fischli & David Weiss, was my first encounter with art. I still remember that moment and the excitement it sparkled in me. Few years later, Gartenskulptur by Dieter Roth installation at Hamburger Bahnhof in Berlin confirmed that art was going to play a central role in my life.
If you will, I consider these two works my baptism: I was for the first time introduced to a world of pure fantasy, ingenuity, irony, equilibrium and also depth and abstraction at the same time. I was struck by the fact that one could conjugate work and Weltanschauung.
I started discovering my artistic path during high school in Florence, surrounded by ancient beauty and immersed in Renaissance art. This experience left a profound mark in my artistic practice, which has always been infused with elements of beauty, composition, and balance. It was when I moved to Berlin though, that I completed my education and developed my practice for what it is right now. Studying photography at Oskreutzschule Academy, then at Weißensee academy and following at UDK, allowed me to explore a different side of my sensitivity, and added a conceptual depth to my practice.
In your art, you work with the shapes of things from your environment. Why are you particularly interested in this and since when has this kind of artistic expression been in the foreground for you?
My works revolve around the coexistence of intuitive abstract forms and figuration. I utilize archetypal shapes to outline metaphysical landscapes and to portray how we relate to places that surround us. Each work strives to establish a universal language that can speak to everyone, might the shapes be extrapolated from a surrounding landscape might they be found in an old roman cistern (see my last installation).
Traces and forms are essential carriers of our past, authors of our present, and fortune tellers of our future.
Are there specific forms from your surroundings that inspire you for your works?
My shapes are residual memories and symbols of a reality that touched me, which I then translate into my own artistic dictionary of sublimated forms, to freeze moments, landscapes, and feelings in time. My metaphysical landscapes serve a two folded purpose of preserving a legacy and infusing new concepts into existing things at the same time.
What do forms trigger in us, what connects us in the perception of forms?
The Human ability to perceive forms and elements has a direct connection with the struggle of deciphering pre-existing concepts like in Plato's cave.
I focus my attention on fundamental shapes, those outlines that can define a shape without trapping it. Therefore, at the beginning of every sculpture, there is an extensive drawing effort.
I believe that humankind strives to give meaning to shapes and symbols, and this effort is the silver lining connecting my work.
How do you come up with the materials you use? When do you work with steel? How did you come to work with bronze? What is the relationship between the material and the form?
I predominantly work with metal for a very specific reason. The originating shapes that I transform are mainly organic, and by forcing them into a non-organic, non-malleable medium as metal, I not only challenge the status quo of things, but also aspire to render such symbols permanent, immutable, indisputable.
I recently embraced bronze as a new addition to my works, probably for the intrinsic nature of the material itself and the complexity -almost an innate resilience- that it requires to be forged into an artwork.
What was your experience as artist-in-residence at HOTO like? Which works were created here?
I am grateful for the opportunity that the HOTO team gave me, it offered me the chance to connect and interact with amazing and kindred individuals, who enriched my artistic vision and encouraged me to grow beyond my boundaries. Many incredible ideas and works were born during the months of residency in Berlin. Thanks to this experience, I decided to work for the first time with the bronze, and I realized I imbibed my sculptures with a more biographical element.
Throughout the final exhibition I will show my latest collection of works OF SLEEP AND DREAMS - Le specie del sonno, a metaphysical journey across the thin line that divides sleep and wake. A journey that will make you constantly question if what is in front of you is real or a product of your subconscious.
A new series of fantastic creatures that have accompanied me during the months of my residency, inspired above all by the book Le specie del sonno, written by Italian writer and editor Ginevra Bompiani. An incredible piece of work where her dreamlike creatures live in suspended time.
Grazie, Lea!
︎︎︎ back
Interview: Lea Mugnaini, artist-in-residence at HOTO
Tell us how you actually came to your artistic work. How long have you been working as an artist and how did you get there?
I was six when for the first time I realized what art was, and what it represented to me. (Disclaimer, I come from a family of creatives).
The incredible work Der Lauf der Dinge, a 16-mm-Color-film by Peter Fischli & David Weiss, was my first encounter with art. I still remember that moment and the excitement it sparkled in me. Few years later, Gartenskulptur by Dieter Roth installation at Hamburger Bahnhof in Berlin confirmed that art was going to play a central role in my life.
If you will, I consider these two works my baptism: I was for the first time introduced to a world of pure fantasy, ingenuity, irony, equilibrium and also depth and abstraction at the same time. I was struck by the fact that one could conjugate work and Weltanschauung.
I started discovering my artistic path during high school in Florence, surrounded by ancient beauty and immersed in Renaissance art. This experience left a profound mark in my artistic practice, which has always been infused with elements of beauty, composition, and balance. It was when I moved to Berlin though, that I completed my education and developed my practice for what it is right now. Studying photography at Oskreutzschule Academy, then at Weißensee academy and following at UDK, allowed me to explore a different side of my sensitivity, and added a conceptual depth to my practice.
In your art, you work with the shapes of things from your environment. Why are you particularly interested in this and since when has this kind of artistic expression been in the foreground for you?
My works revolve around the coexistence of intuitive abstract forms and figuration. I utilize archetypal shapes to outline metaphysical landscapes and to portray how we relate to places that surround us. Each work strives to establish a universal language that can speak to everyone, might the shapes be extrapolated from a surrounding landscape might they be found in an old roman cistern (see my last installation).
Traces and forms are essential carriers of our past, authors of our present, and fortune tellers of our future.
Are there specific forms from your surroundings that inspire you for your works?
My shapes are residual memories and symbols of a reality that touched me, which I then translate into my own artistic dictionary of sublimated forms, to freeze moments, landscapes, and feelings in time. My metaphysical landscapes serve a two folded purpose of preserving a legacy and infusing new concepts into existing things at the same time.
What do forms trigger in us, what connects us in the perception of forms?
The Human ability to perceive forms and elements has a direct connection with the struggle of deciphering pre-existing concepts like in Plato's cave.
I focus my attention on fundamental shapes, those outlines that can define a shape without trapping it. Therefore, at the beginning of every sculpture, there is an extensive drawing effort.
I believe that humankind strives to give meaning to shapes and symbols, and this effort is the silver lining connecting my work.
How do you come up with the materials you use? When do you work with steel? How did you come to work with bronze? What is the relationship between the material and the form?
I predominantly work with metal for a very specific reason. The originating shapes that I transform are mainly organic, and by forcing them into a non-organic, non-malleable medium as metal, I not only challenge the status quo of things, but also aspire to render such symbols permanent, immutable, indisputable.
I recently embraced bronze as a new addition to my works, probably for the intrinsic nature of the material itself and the complexity -almost an innate resilience- that it requires to be forged into an artwork.
What was your experience as artist-in-residence at HOTO like? Which works were created here?
I am grateful for the opportunity that the HOTO team gave me, it offered me the chance to connect and interact with amazing and kindred individuals, who enriched my artistic vision and encouraged me to grow beyond my boundaries. Many incredible ideas and works were born during the months of residency in Berlin. Thanks to this experience, I decided to work for the first time with the bronze, and I realized I imbibed my sculptures with a more biographical element.
Throughout the final exhibition I will show my latest collection of works OF SLEEP AND DREAMS - Le specie del sonno, a metaphysical journey across the thin line that divides sleep and wake. A journey that will make you constantly question if what is in front of you is real or a product of your subconscious.
A new series of fantastic creatures that have accompanied me during the months of my residency, inspired above all by the book Le specie del sonno, written by Italian writer and editor Ginevra Bompiani. An incredible piece of work where her dreamlike creatures live in suspended time.
Grazie, Lea!
︎︎︎ back