Nächtliches Konzert: Jorinde Voigt and Gregor Hildebrandt
February 5th, 2012 to April 15th, 2012
Press release
Under the title Nächtliches Konzert (Nightly Concert), Museum van Bommel van Dam will be exhibiting work by two young German artists from the 5th of February until the 15th of April: Jorinde Voigt and Gregor Hildebrandt. Both of them live and work in Berlin and have created enormous furore during the last few years. Both Voigt and Hildebrandt have received various prizes in their current city of residence and have captured attention at international fairs and exhibitions. Nächtliches Konzert will be the first major museum presentation for the duo in the Netherlands.
Everyday phenomena like pop and movie music or the sound of the street are central themes in Nächtliches Konzert. The exhibition title refers literally to a recent work by Jorinde Voigt. At the same time, the title describes the darker works by Gregor Hildebrandt, which is inaudible music. The work by both artists is rather conceptual in nature and places great demands on the imagination of the viewers. Although Hildebrandt and Voigt in essence embrace the same themes, the appearance of their work differs markedly.
Jorinde Voigt (Frankfurt am Main, 1977) is especially well-known for her monumental drawings, in which graceful lines, arrows and numbers form dynamic compositions. Her drawings are a delight to behold, but can also be seen as scoring or coding. The placement of lines and points is not random, but is dictated by an algorithm. Through depicting all the possible steps within a step-by-step plan, Voigt attempts to comprehend and visualise the underlying structures of a phenomenon.
Gregor Hildebrandt (Bad Homburg, 1974) adopts a different method. He mainly creates strongly geometric paintings, installations and collages in which tape from cassettes and videos is incorporated. Music or film has been recorded on the tape. Although the music is inaudible and the film cannot be seen, the recordings determine the content of the work. The song text, the story line, the performing singer or actor returns in the work through the title, a hand-written text or a photograph. Hildebrandt looks for ways to transform elements from a volatile medium into a static image.
In Nächtliches Konzert, the works, which are visually almost exact opposites of each other, are confronted with each other. The light, dynamic drawings by Jorinde Voigt form a contrast with the quiet, dark works by Gregor Hildebrandt. Some works have resemblances. As, in addition to drawings, Voigt also makes sculptures, in which she positions painted bars next to each other against the wall. The geometric and pattern-like appearance of these works is close to the panels by Hildebrandt. In turn, Hildebrandt also ‘paints’ complex collages with tape. The work suggests the abstract expressionist work of, for example, Pollock. The fragile pattern of lines that occurs here does not make it difficult to see similarities with the drawings by Voigt.
The exhibition is accompanied by a publication and an exclusive edition by both artists.
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