Skip to content
Close Menu
Language selection

You are here:

Catching the Light

Astrid Busch, Clemens Fürtler, Eberhard Havekost, Anne Kaminsky, Mischa Kuball, Nadia Lichtig, Ursula Ott, James Turrell, Corinne Wasmuht

Duration: April 13 to July 07, 2018

Curator: Ludwig Seyfarth

The exhibition Catching the Light examines both the representation and direct use of light in today’s art. Its focus lies on the combination of light and movement in the depiction of light effects and in the immediate staging of light in a given space. 

150 years ago, the Impressionists around Paul Cézanne had concentrated on the visual perception of their environment and developed means of expression that would correspond to a continually changing and increasingly accelerating world. The artists of the exhibition Catching the Light too render visible the processes of perception, likewise in terms of their temporality. The scope of works on display ranges from paintings, to photographs and video films, to spatial installations. 

Up for debate, here, is the question of the (media-induced) relation of visibility and invisibility. This relation, also concerning the social and political space, today takes entirely different forms than it did in the days of the Impressionists. 

Catching the Light is likewise an appeal to bear in mind and recall the artistic heritage of painting in the era of advanced media we are in. When the indexical character of photography is predominant in determining art-theoretical concepts of image and space—as quite frequently was the case in the wake of Rosalind Krauss’ Notes on the Index (1977)—then the phenomenal complexity and ambiguity of artworks tend to be reduced to their informational content in the sense of “visual communication”. 

Supported by:

Exhibition views

Accompanying program

, 7 pm

Catching the Light: Opening

Welcome 
Monika Schnetkamp, Chairwoman Arthena Foundation

Introduction
Ludwig Seyfarth, Curator of the exhibition

, 7 pm

Düsseldorf’s Night of Museums

entrance: 14 Euro for all venues

Düsseldorf’s Night of Museums with guided tours through the exhibition and performance be a thing that feels by EINkollektiv (7–8 pm / 9–10 pm)

, 7 pm

Artist talk

Artist talk with Nadia Lichtig, Mischa Kuball and Ludwig Seyfarth

, 4 pm

Catching the Light: Finissage with guided tour

Finissage with guided tour led by curator Ludwig Seyfarth followed by a talk with Eberhard Havekost, afterwards snacks and drinks.
Music: Special E

, 7 pm

Düsseldorf’s Night of Museums 2020

| Cancellation due to given reason by the organizer of the Night of the Museums Düsseldorf. |

Guided tours through the exhibition 7, 9, 11 pm | Screening programme with works by the artists of the exhibition 20, 22, 24 pm | The curator Ludwig Seyfarth will play classical music | entrance: 14 Euro for all venues

, 7 pm

Düsseldorf’s Night of Museums

The Body as the Scale of Drawing

How does the physical activity of drawing relate to existing or fictional dimensions? In the Gulliver's Sketchbook exhibition, 16 artists driven by the ingenuity of the drawing pen pursue this and further questions. Short guided tours will take you from the microcosm to the macrocosm. In Nicole Wendel’s performance (N)ON SITE BODIES, the individual scale becomes visible in the context of physical, psychological and architectural space. In his documentary Oliarus Polyphemus, Oliver Thie describes how his artistic practice is based on the engagement with scientific imaging techniques.

7 pm, 10 pm, 11:30 pm: short guided tours of the exhibition

Nonstop: Oliarus Polyphemus, documentary by Oliver Thie on his two-year residency at the Berlin Museum of Natural History

8 pm, 9 pm: (N)ON SITE BODIES, performance by Nicole Wendel and Jan Burkhardt with eleven dancers from the University of Music and Dance in Cologne / 30 min

Back to top of page