Herlinde Koelbl - Metamorphosen
12/16/2022-05/29/2023 at H2 - Zentrum für Gegenwartskunst im Glaspalast
Herlinde Koelbl, probably the most important portrait and people photographer of our time, has added a new, inspiring chapter to her extensive photographic oeuvre. For the first time, her project "Metamorphoses" does not show man himself, but reflects his being in the essence of the constantly changing nature. H2 - Center for Contemporary Art presents Herlinde Koelbl's more than 100 fascinating color photographs exclusively and for the first time in a large-scale show.
None remains in the same shape, and loving change
Nature always creates new forms from others
And in the vastness of the world nothing - believe me - gets lost;
Change and exchange is only in the form. Emergence and becoming
Means only to begin to be different than before, and to pass away
To be nothing as before.
(Ovid)
Herlinde Koelbl, September 2022:
"In the long series of my projects, this is the first time that there are no people to be seen. But one theme that runs through my work has remained, transience. But now my focus is on nature. In it, nothing remains as it is. Emergence, becoming and passing away. In the "metamorphoses" all life themes are contained. They are the breaking points for transformation.
In the passing away nature lets arise a new beauty and a changed perception. It requires a special attentiveness, a close look, to recognize this.
Nature creates incredible forms, colors and structures. Everything changes, becomes brittle, slackens or solidifies, changes its state of aggregation. Colors change in their intensity and scale of tonality. By emphasizing details, the artist creates his own pictorial compositions. A new level of reality and perception appears. The images become abstract, a state of suspension is achieved. A kind of visual archaeology that overlaps or even collides with the images or ideas we think we know. The present and the past flow into each other. And the future lies in reappearance."
A catalog accompanying the exhibition has been published by Steidl-Verlag.
