Siegfried Kreitner / Annette Sauermann: LICHTIMPULS

In the organizer's words:

Once again, the gallery's image has been completely transformed: Just a few days ago, "Mother Madonna Me" was on display, a diverse and international exhibition with the theme of contemporary images of mothers, and now the gallery presents itself with an extremely minimalist exhibition with clear edges and color surfaces. It is immediately obvious that Kreitner and Sauermann work in the wake of concrete art and that no messages beyond the pure art object are conveyed here.
This is the third exhibition dialog this year in which two artists are brought together who have not previously exhibited together. In this case, that is not quite true, as Kreitner and Sauermann have already been shown together in group exhibitions by the recently deceased gallery owner Linde Hollinger in Ladenburg. Nevertheless, the gallery has long been keen to consolidate the works of these two artists in a double exhibition, which has now resulted in this excellent exhibition dialog.
In the gallery space, the two positions are easy to distinguish: Siegfried Kreitner's objects are in the room, while Annette Sauermann's are on the wall. A further distinction is that all of Kreitner's objects are in motion and illuminated as soon as the electricity is switched on. Movement can also be found indirectly in Annette Sauermann's objects, as the ambient light plays a decisive role in her work, which is of course in continuous motion, completely without motors. And her light also manages entirely without electricity and is generated solely by the ambient light and the fluorescent materials.

Siegfried Kreitner
The Lower Bavarian artist creates kinetic sculptures with a precision that is unique. He is one of the most important artists in this field in Germany and can look back on many exhibitions, including numerous institutional ones. His works can be found in renowned collections such as the Museum Ritter in Waldenbuch and the Peter C. Ruppert Collection in Ingolstadt.

Bizarre machines stand in the room, their movements very slow, barely perceptible. What are they for and what can they do? Under these questions they elude any use and simply stand for themselves as symbols of mechanical or physical laws. The mechanisms interlock precisely and run through a sophisticated cycle of movement.
Three groups of works are shown in the exhibition: Firstly, there are the works with the moving neon light rings (example V 2014). Each ring moves slowly up and down around its fixed central axis, like a boat swaying in the waves. At one brief point, all the neon rings are parallel to one another before they again transition into seemingly irregular movements in opposite directions: Order and chaos are united in this system.
As an example of a second group of works, a silver cube (VII 2025) can be seen, the walls of which shift slightly back and forth to reveal a mysterious blue light inside. From a distance, it is reminiscent of a fairytale treasure chest from which glowing gemstones or a magical glass ball twinkle. It is impossible to see what the source of this glow is. The viewers ask how and why - curiosity and suspense are in the room. Only on closer inspection through the opening and closing edges does the secret reveal itself and open up a view of the light tubes and the mechanics: Technology and poetry unite in a wonderful way.
The third example is a work a good two meters high (III 2022), in which color panels rotate and shift against each other at different speeds by means of a complicated mechanism. The view is in a permanent, seemingly uneven state of flux, constantly revealing new compositions and color tones. Individual views are reminiscent of El Lissitzky's constructions or Mondriaan's clear color weightings, but it does not remain a static image; instead, a large number of such images appear in chronological sequence, united in a single object.
The entire mechanics of the object are visible, motors, gears, power supply and cables, and so we try to physically trace the rhythm and the changing arrangement. Kreitner's machines look as if they could have come from modern robotics research, but they are the exact opposite of robots, they do not serve and they fulfill no purpose. Kreitner's mechanical organisms are self-sufficient, they are limited to their existence, solely dependent on electricity.

Annette Sauermann
The objects in the room are juxtaposed with Annette Sauermann's wall objects. The Aachen-born artist, who was born in Essen, has been working artistically with her theme of light for 35 years. She has had numerous exhibitions in Europe and the USA. She has also realized numerous art-in-building projects, most recently a 6-metre-high light stele at Cologne University Hospital.
Her multi-part works in the exhibition consist of a corpus and mostly self-illuminating monochrome color panels, which in turn create new color fields through transparency and overlapping. The fluorescent edges of the color panels create sharp lines that outline the overall picture.
Her largest work in the exhibition (Wandrelief o.T., inv. no. 19010) refers to an earlier work stage through the use of concrete. In this work, several yellow panels and a blue one are framed between two concrete blocks. The arrangement of the panels creates various yellow fields, a large blue field and a narrow green stripe. The fields are bordered by the edges of the panels, which draw fine vertical lines and stagger the image vertically. In addition, in the left half of the picture, two transparent strips are stretched across the entire height of the picture, further supporting this structure and adding another picture plane. Annette Sauermann uses concrete, Plexiglas and light filters, but the actual work material is the light, which she guides here and literally models through the arrangement of the panels and the light filter. The concrete as a light-absorbing material creates the physically perceptible boundary of the picture at the top and bottom.
She dispenses with this boundary in her more recent works, which she calls "Lighttransformer". For example, in Sauermann's latest work, Lighttransformer 1A, Circle and Square, the light is intended to unfold in all directions beyond the body of the picture. A circular shape is intertwined with a square basic form, but these are actually only vaguely recognizable due to the use of the white satinized material on the wall. At the intersection of square and circle, however, powerful sun-yellow circles in various formats overlap, creating a kind of explosion of light from within.
The use of the simplest unadulterated basic forms with few colors and the structuring through luminous lines is a consistent topos in the work of Annette Sauermann in recent years. The exhibition shows various other works in which she explores this with different colors and formats. Sauermann has embarked on a creative search for the original laws of light, form and color, as others have certainly done before her, such as Theo van Doesburgh or Wassily Kandinsky, but she has found a form of expression that is unique in its materiality and minimal gesture: works by Annette Sauermann are recognizable at first glance.
The title of the exhibition is LICHTIMPULS and is derived from the above: movement and light are the main themes, and these two motifs are intended to give visitors the impulse to look with a keen eye and have unique sensory experiences. Read in this way, the exhibition is also an immersive experience in the best sense of the word.