{"id":3334,"date":"2018-04-27T12:19:48","date_gmt":"2018-04-27T12:19:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/clarapacquet.com\/?p=3334"},"modified":"2018-05-23T08:33:23","modified_gmt":"2018-05-23T08:33:23","slug":"exhibition-text-weltratsel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/clarapacquet.com\/?p=3334&lang=en","title":{"rendered":"[EXHIBITION TEXT] Weltr\u00e4tsel"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Ernst Haeckel, Kunstformen der Natur, 1899-1904, Tafel 85<\/p><\/div>\n

Weltr\u00e4tsel (Floating Mountains, Breathing Glaciers)
\n<\/strong>Line Hvoslef<\/a>, Maja Nilsen<\/a>, Randi Nyg\u00e5rd<\/a>
\nExhibition from 21.04.2018 until 02.06.2018 at\u00a0SCOTTY, Berlin<\/a><\/p>\n

Invited by SCOTTY for the first exhibition of a series entitled \u201cDer Schein der Dinge\u201d (How Things Appear), Line S. Hvoslef, Maja Nilsen and Randi Nyg\u00e5rd are showing several works exploring rhizomatically the human and non-human representations of Nature. If the three artists draw shapes and patterns from the life of Nature, they enrich their perspective with considerations involving history, memory, imagination, autobiography and speculation. Their works combine in various ways natural philosophy (from Antiquity until romantic idealism by way of medieval knowledge tradition), baroque aesthetics, mysticism, alchemy, natural science, abstract painting, surrealism or conceptual art. In spite of differences in their methodological approach, Nature for Hvoslef, Nilsen and Nyg\u00e5rd is a subject of study but also a medium and a source of philosophical if not political inspiration \u2013 three parts of their artistic research which seem to be inseparable from each other.<\/p>\n

\"Line <\/a>
Line S. Hvoslef, Landscape I, 2018 <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Line <\/a>
Line S. Hvoslef, Landscape II, 2018 <\/div> <\/div>
\"Line <\/a>
Line S. Hvoslef, Landscape III, 2018 <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

The riddles of the universe <\/strong>
\nThe exhibition title is quoting the book of the German biologist and philosopher Ernst Haeckel (1834-1919), Die Weltr\u00e4thsel. Gemeinverst\u00e4ndliche Studien \u00fcber monistische Philosophie,<\/em> first published in 1899. In this opus, Haeckel aimed to popularize for non-academic readers Darwin\u2019s theory of evolution by exposing his monistic view of the universe, namely a non-dualistic understanding of the relation between material and spiritual, body and mind; all existing things are derived from one single substance and composed of elementary particles or \u201cmonads\u201d. According to the mathematician and philosopher Leibniz, in his Monadology, <\/em>Chapter 3, \u201cmonads are the\u00a0true atoms\u00a0of nature, and, in brief, the\u00a0elements\u00a0of things\u201d. Haeckel saw in the concept of evolution developed by Darwin an elementary principle able to answer the riddles of the universe. In other words, able to solve what Kant called the \u201cmetaphysical questions\u201d, the ones nobody would ever resolve. In Haeckel\u2019s eyes, science has no boundaries and never stops progressing, but one riddle persists: the origin of the universe\u2019s substance.<\/p>\n

\"Maja <\/a>
Maja Nilsen, Amplexus, 2018 <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Maja <\/a>
Maja Nilsen, Amplexus, 2018 <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Maja <\/a>
Maja Nilsen, Amplexus, 2018 <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

Reading the Book of Nature<\/strong>
\nOften-cited by Schopenhauer and Nietzsche, the metaphor of Weltr\u00e4tsel <\/em>\u2013 world-riddle \u2013 originates in a long story. At least since Lucretius\u2019 scientific poem De rerum natura<\/em> (On the Nature of Things), written during the first-century BC, Nature is seen as an area full of signs requiring an interpretation, while atoms are compared to letters. Spread by Augustine since the 5th<\/sup> century, the allegory of the \u201cBook of Nature\u201d (liber naturae) <\/em>still has influence today. Inspired by Thomas of Cantimpr\u00e9\u2019s Liber de natura rerum,<\/em> Conrad of Megenberg published his encyclopedia Book of Nature<\/em> (1475) describing the life of plants and animals. It is the first natural history published in German collecting all the knowledge about Nature available at that time and mixing scientific with mythological considerations. Cantimpr\u00e9 wrote his most famous opus Bonum universale de apibus<\/em> between 1257 and 1263, an allegory of human society built on a description of the life in a community of bees. Deciphering the riddles of the universe, all these \u201cbooks of Nature\u201d contained many illustrations precious for understanding the cosmos not only by means of text but also with images.<\/p>\n

\"Randi <\/a>
Randi Nyg\u00e5rd, Black Carbon Creates Clouds, Drifts in The Wind and Falls to The Ground (Iceberg, Ny-\u00c5lesund, Spitsbergen) 2015, charcoal on paper over iceberg <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Randi <\/a>
Randi Nyg\u00e5rd, Black Carbon Creates Clouds, Drifts in The Wind and Falls to The Ground (Iceberg, Ny-\u00c5lesund, Spitsbergen) 2015, charcoal on paper over iceberg <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Randi <\/a>
Randi Nyg\u00e5rd, Black Carbon Creates Clouds, Drifts in The Wind and Falls to The Ground (Iceberg, Ny-\u00c5lesund, Spitsbergen) 2015, charcoal on paper over iceberg <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Randi <\/a>
Randi Nyg\u00e5rd, Black Carbon Creates Clouds, Drifts in The Wind and Falls to The Ground (Iceberg, Ny-\u00c5lesund, Spitsbergen) 2015, charcoal on paper over iceberg <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Randi <\/a>
Randi Nyg\u00e5rd, Black Carbon Creates Clouds, Drifts in The Wind and Falls to The Ground (Iceberg, Ny-\u00c5lesund, Spitsbergen) 2015, charcoal on paper over iceberg <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

The Mirror of Nature<\/strong>
\nAnother philosophical allegory from the 13th<\/sup> century used to describe the organization of the cosmos was the mirror of Nature \u2013 speculum naturale<\/em>. The Dominican Vincent of Beauvais is widely known for his encyclopedia Great Mirror (Speculum maius)<\/em> probably written between 1235 and 1264. 80 books including 9885 chapters had gathered the knowledge capable to explain the material and spiritual order of the creation. According to the medieval tradition, mirroring, imitating and reflecting are etymologically as well as conceptually related to the action of thinking, contemplating, or speculating. Quoting again Leibniz\u2019s Monadology, <\/em>each monad \u2013 that is each micro or macro unity \u2013 is a \u201cliving mirror\u00a0of the\u00a0universe\u201d. This allegorical understanding of the cosmos turned Nature into a theater whispering half-encrypted stories and whose stage setting is playing with mirrors.<\/p>\n

\"Randi <\/a>
Randi Nyg\u00e5rd, Tomrom etter saintpaulia In The Absence of African Violet Installation 2017 Mirros, photo, plant and wood <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Randi <\/a>
Randi Nyg\u00e5rd, Tomrom etter saintpaulia In The Absence of African Violet Installation 2017 Mirros, photo, plant and wood <\/div> <\/div>
\"Randi <\/a>
Randi Nyg\u00e5rd, Tomrom etter saintpaulia In The Absence of African Violet Installation 2017 Mirros, photo, plant and wood <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

A book, a mirror, a theater<\/strong>
\nIn the works of Hvoslef, Nilsen and Nyg\u00e5rd, we see mirrors, landscapes, real or imaginary. We see plants and animals; seas, mountains and other natural or fantastic figures occupy the space. These pictorial elements move in a Nature which appears like an open book containing a collection of rebus. Some methods and motives used by the artists might even migrate from one work to another creating a common space of circulation for all kind of interpretations. These interpretations have a special responsibility today regarding the possible future of the cosmos, for instance endangered animals and plants. Does the gallery space show itself more like a book, a mirror or a theater? Probably a collage of the three. Beyond all differences set between abstraction and figuration, Hvoslef\u2019s landscapes \u2013 comparable to soundscapes \u2013 consist of forms, movements and forces. Melting nature and technology, Hvoslef comes within the scope of the pictorial tradition influenced by Goethe\u2019s morphology and its concept of metamorphose. Nature and history cannot be simply separated. They work together and produce some strange mixed creatures, just like it is impossible to draw clear lines between the past, the present and the future. Similar to a monad, Nyg\u00e5rd\u2019s \u201cmirror-collage\u201d stages a small theatrical space dedicated to the African Violet\u2019s contradictory destiny: the plant is in danger of extinction because of climate change, while it is ironically one of the common house plants you can buy everywhere. Exploring the \u201coceanic feeling\u201d, her series \u201cBlack Carbon Creates Clouds, Drifts in The Wind and Falls to The Ground (Iceberg, Ny-\u00c5lesund, Spitsbergen)\u201c records natural reliefs by rubbing. By means of the artist\u2019s body, charcoal embodies on the paper the whole water cycle. Regarding Nilsen\u2019s collages, the theatrical and ornamental dimensions are clearly stressed. Delicately combining photographic elements taken from popular scientific books, Nilsen\u2019s collages open up a mysterious cosmic dimension where natural objects are turned into costume or jewelries, whereas no limits remain between artistic and natural forms, human and non-human worlds. Composing a collage implies a fusion, a magnetizing process, even a mating as the title of the series \u201cAmplexus\u201d suggests. Nilsen takes the etymological family relationship between cosmos and cosmetics very seriously and pays homage to Haeckel\u2019s book of lithographic and halftone prints based on sketches and watercolors of organisms: the Kunstformen der Natur<\/em> (1899-1904).<\/p>\n