Shared Space - Measuring the Sky

Why not start August and the future with a newsletter that will be published monthly from now on. This is joy and commitment at the same time, as always in life. So let's start with something beautiful and then end this in something seductive.

On 20 July, exactly 54 years after Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the surface of the moon, the art exhibition "Shared Space - Verortung des Himmels" (Shared Space - Measuring the Sky) opened at LAB3 e.V./Darmstadt. The vernissage was attended by interested guests from near and far, even from Freiburg, which is about 240 km away. Nine artists Cathrin Machin (Aus), Jules Deitcher (Can), Bastilliani (ESP), Christine Jaksch aka CREO (Ger), Constanze Claudia Lorenz (Ger), Hélène Lindqvist (Ger), Torsten Andreas Hoffmann (Ger), Markus Horn (Ger) and Dieter Hanf (Ger) will present their works until 25.01.2024 in the rooms and corridors of the HUB31 - Technologie- und Gründerzentrum Darmstadt and LAB3 e.V. , Hilpertstr. 31, 64295 Darmstadt. Partially financed by Kultursommer Südhessen e.V e.V. and supported by ARTMEA - International Gallery of Fine Arts and ultimately also by Ferox Projektentwicklung GmbH & Co. KG . The exhibition is open daily between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m., on weekends by appointment at [email protected].

Imagine being an artist and voluntary curator of an exhibition with so many actors on different levels, taking care of the rooms, the partial financing, the contacts to the artists, together with the artists and the gallery owner Carola Müller (Ass. jur.) . Of course, you have to deal with the daily surprises, such as the shipping doesn't work out, the wrong pictures arrive, you have to reschedule at short notice, and in the meantime you have to quickly mount 70 m of gallery rails or get them ready to hang. Prints go wrong, drills break off or, something I've never seen before, melt into the concrete... the normal madness of planning and running an event of this size. We're talking about 79, or with the parallel event starting in November at the Kunsthalle Darmstadt, 95 works of art.

All experienced colleagues in the art world will nod with a smile and look back on their experiences. I invite you to write or tell me about them. You can always learn from it.

The most beautiful experience of this work was and still is that we have all managed together to create not only an art place to explore and discover. Not only has a place been created for meeting and interested discussion of the theme of the universe. All those who were and are involved have succeeded in creating a galaxy of the heart without long ifs and buts. No matter what difficulties arose, after a short pause, deliberation, consultation and consideration, a good solution was found, a feeling of togetherness and relaxation, so that the preparations, despite initial scepticism as to whether the undertaking could succeed, were able to give the whole exhibition a wonderful feeling of togetherness. Shared space was in this sense a multiplied space, with new possibilities and ideas, a space of support, mutual help and openness. For this I am very grateful to all the contributors.

Now let's move on to the art. Besides breathtaking astrophotography and processing by Cathrin Machin and Markus Horn, you can admire very beautiful, purely abstract works by Jules Deitcher and CREO aka. Christine Jaksch, Hélène Lindqvist and very colourful, large-format artworks by Constanze Claudia Lorenz. However, Hélène and Christine also show very beautiful figurative works. Bastilliani, Christine and myself also present some digital artworks as high-quality prints. Some of these works also deal with the theme in a critical/humorous way. Torsten Andreas Hoffmann also dealt with the topic of Shared Space in a critical/satirical way. He and several other artists focus on the spaces of our natural spaceship, the earth.

Torsten approached the subject photographically and answered many questions from the very interested audience at the vernissage. His montages on divided space attracted a lot of attention.

In the large foyer of the building, the works by Constanze Claudia Lorenz impressed not only because of their size. The expressiveness of the paintings is of a tremendous lightness.

Markus Horn also takes photographs, but like Cathrin Machin, he deals with the universe in a very concrete way. He photographs the starry sky in black and white and processes the images according to the information available on the objects. There is a kind of internationally agreed colour scale for certain elements of the periodic table, which are applied according to their occurrence in a galaxy, for example.

Back in the lounge of the building wing, I finally presented my work. The subject of space and its various aspects has occupied me since childhood. I still vividly remember the all-nighters to witness the Apollo missions. The first moon landing was of course an absolute highlight. I later learned that this moment was introduced by BBC television with David Bowie's song "Space Oddity", which in turn inspired me to make a series called "Major Tom". I had exhibited images from this series four years ago for the 50th anniversary of the moon landing at St Germain in Paris. This time I presented a new edition among other artworks.

The space tourism that began to emerge years ago prompted me to create a corresponding work. "Space Dreams" tells the story... a tourist moves around on the moon, which has been developed for tourism in the meantime, and films a demonstration of the moon landing...

The structures of the universe, the interplay of matter and dark matter, the connections between galaxies that form mysterious clusters and superclusters have fascinated me for a long time. Here you can see an example.

I hope I could make you a little curious about this exhibition, come to our theme evenings on the third Thursday of each month.

At the midissage on Thursday 19 October, 7pm we will celebrate "In the Middle of the Universe" with many of the exhibiting artists and present a special project by Christine. There will of course be a guided tour, the opportunity to exchange ideas about science and art, and a small party to close the evening. We look forward to seeing you there, and we hope you will come in plenty.

August offers me the opportunity to participate in a group exhibition "Die Neu(e)n" in Darmstadt and to prepare an exhibition in Darmstadt in September. The BBK Darmstadt-Südhessen presents its new members. Because of Corona, this annual event was cancelled several times.

I will show Aurum - Sehnsucht Gold (Aurum - Human Desire) for the first time from the end of September until mid-October at Atelier 6 in Darmstadt. I will report about it in the next newsletter. Until then, have a good time...

Yours Dieter