AniLighters
Sun, Mar 26
|Roeselare
Exhibition of new work by German artist Marina Jacob
Zeit & Ort
Mar 26, 2023, 2:00 PM – Jun 04, 2023, 5:00 PM
Roeselare, Bergstraat 23, 8800 Roeselare, Belgien
Über die Veranstaltung
MUZE’UM L is pleased to announce AniLighters, an exhibition of new work by German artist Marina Jacob.
For this exhibition the artist presents series of site-specific sculptural objects and large format drawings.
The word that sounds like „any lighters” is an invention compiled of “animal” and “lighters”. The word is an homage to the French Philosopher Jacques Derrida who often came up with such hybrid words.
From the very beginning the artist has been fascinated by the challenge of bringing together two seemingly unrelated motives: that of the Light central for the MUZE’UM L, and that of the difficult human relationship to other species central for Marina’s artistic practice.
The first inspiration came from the oculus, a striking architectural feature of the venue. The artist imagined huge unknown animals attracted by the light of the oculus. Arriving from everywhere, they fall under the spell of the building and, hypnotized, change their nature and form. Inspired by Garcia Márquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude, she conceived of alien but uneasily familiar beings, somnambules plagued by the light pollution.
The development of the works for the show built initially on the research for Flower Coordinates and [The] Y Animal, two projects supported by the grant of the Hessische Kulturstiftung. It showed how crucial the light is for any animal body, human and non-human alike. For many animals the light is a mean of spatial and temporal orientation. A light pollution caused by excessive illumination and extension of human habitats turns this source of life into a trap.
The formal solution for the sculptural works and drawings remains tied to the leitmotiv of mutation and hybridity. Based on the research on Flemish lace-making tradition, their shapes and materiality remain unstable and live from constant border crossing. The metal lace of the objects originates in an elaborate process of digital and manual manipulation of the images of drought and environmental distress. Drawings, large in scale, assert they bodily presence in space and combine different areas, from dynamic mark-making to elaborate imaginary depictions.
The title AniLighters mirrors the main creative principle of the show, that of polyphony (music in several voices). Such strategy invites an interdisciplinary approach. During the opening, the opera singer Mária Devitzaki, soprano, will share with the visitors her unique interpretation of this idea in interaction with the exhibition objects and the space of MUZE’UM L.