Benedikt Hipp
26 Feb - 30 Apr 2011
BENEDIKT HIPP
Von Tür nach Thule
26 February - 30 April, 2011
The exhibition “Von Tür nach Thule” describes the possibility of a path leading away from a place defined by space and time towards an uncharted distance. “Thule” is an island that was first mentioned in the records of the
geographer Pytheas in 325 BC, yet it cannot be reliably positioned based on current geographical knowledge. While the protagonists in Benedikt Hipp’s preceding series of fragmentary “spatial stages” still resembled humans, in his new series, “Von Tür nach Thule”, they increasingly become ephemeral beings alluding to another world. Some of these beings merge manlike traits in their
semblance and appear as a transition to a different image of man, the “model experiment of a renewal”. At the centre of all paintings, one now finds a subject whose
amorphous shape bears the possibility of innumerable appearances and can itself turn into architectural space. The individual element is repeatedly set in new relations to
the fragmentarily defined surroundings; it is positioned and then dissolved again. An indication of the relationship between individual and whole is also given by the titles of
the drawings and paintings, e.g., “The Audience (Wunderhall)”, “Paraleut” or “gekritzes Geschiebe”. The composition and painting technique seem to open the paintings to the inside, the viewer “enters” into new territory. This contemplative imagination of possible
world creations within the paintings is turned to the outside by means of real architectural interventions in the exhibition space. The sculptures positioned in it form a real stage and also encompass the viewer. The interventions in the exhibition space are reminiscent
of abstract stage staffages and in a fragmentary way conceal the original architecture or even do away with its actual function, like the blocked main door of the
gallery. Here, Benedikt Hipp’s sculptures are actual corporeal excerpts of his painted immersed image worlds. A “peculiar” vis-à-vis, such as the sculpture “Bohrkern mit Silberscheibe (Drill Core with Silver Disc)”, in which the history of world creation manifests itself as a geological witness and continues the quest for Thule inside the earth.
Von Tür nach Thule
26 February - 30 April, 2011
The exhibition “Von Tür nach Thule” describes the possibility of a path leading away from a place defined by space and time towards an uncharted distance. “Thule” is an island that was first mentioned in the records of the
geographer Pytheas in 325 BC, yet it cannot be reliably positioned based on current geographical knowledge. While the protagonists in Benedikt Hipp’s preceding series of fragmentary “spatial stages” still resembled humans, in his new series, “Von Tür nach Thule”, they increasingly become ephemeral beings alluding to another world. Some of these beings merge manlike traits in their
semblance and appear as a transition to a different image of man, the “model experiment of a renewal”. At the centre of all paintings, one now finds a subject whose
amorphous shape bears the possibility of innumerable appearances and can itself turn into architectural space. The individual element is repeatedly set in new relations to
the fragmentarily defined surroundings; it is positioned and then dissolved again. An indication of the relationship between individual and whole is also given by the titles of
the drawings and paintings, e.g., “The Audience (Wunderhall)”, “Paraleut” or “gekritzes Geschiebe”. The composition and painting technique seem to open the paintings to the inside, the viewer “enters” into new territory. This contemplative imagination of possible
world creations within the paintings is turned to the outside by means of real architectural interventions in the exhibition space. The sculptures positioned in it form a real stage and also encompass the viewer. The interventions in the exhibition space are reminiscent
of abstract stage staffages and in a fragmentary way conceal the original architecture or even do away with its actual function, like the blocked main door of the
gallery. Here, Benedikt Hipp’s sculptures are actual corporeal excerpts of his painted immersed image worlds. A “peculiar” vis-à-vis, such as the sculpture “Bohrkern mit Silberscheibe (Drill Core with Silver Disc)”, in which the history of world creation manifests itself as a geological witness and continues the quest for Thule inside the earth.