[spectre] ZKM/exhibition opening/» Light Art from Artificial Light «

[Irina Koutoudis]

ZKM | Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie Karlsruhe
ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe
November 2005

Invitation to the exhibition opening

» L i g h t   A r t   f r o m   A r t i f i c i a l   L i g h t «
(19 November 2005 through 01 May 2006)

Friday, 18 November 2005, 7.30 p.m. at the ZKM, Lorenzstr. 19,  
D-76135 Karlsruhe

On the evening of 18 November 2005 the ZKM | Museum for Contemporary  
Art will open the ambitious exhibition Light Art from Artificial Light.
This show on the theme of electrical light as an artistic medium,  
which extends across all three floors of the ZKM | Museum for  
Contemporary Art and includes ca. 340 works from 230 artists covering  
100 years of art history, will offer an encyclopedic overview of the  
development of light art from its beginnings until the present day.  
The exhibition leads through the decades beginning with the earliest  
works from the 1920s, including films by Viking Eggeling and Walter  
Ruttmann, through to the first abstract neon pictures (1946) by Gyula  
Kosicea, and a black light room by Lucio Fontana (1948/49). Shown  
will be reconstructed light rooms from the 1960s by Gruppo T  and  
ZERO, some of which have not been exhibited for over forty years,  
classical positions in light art such as those by James Turrell,  
François Morellet, Dan Flavin, and Keith Sonnier, and additionally,  
current works by Carsten Höller, Olafur Eliasson,  and Sylvie Fleury,  
among others.
The exhibition’s central theme is the confrontation of diverse art  
genres with the medium of artificial light. The individual areas of  
the exhibition are thus concerned with Kinetic Art, Minimal Art,  
Concept Art, and Arte Povera. The unusual architecture of the  
exhibition Light Art from Artificial Light likewise enables a very  
special approach to the theme of light art: the works will shine as  
the only source of light in the darkened space.

For the first time, an exhibition by ZKM | Museum for Contemporary  
Art will leave the museum space to shine its light into the city,  
right at the darkest time of the year.  Shown on the grounds in front  
of the ZKM and in the sub-space of the ZKM cube, will be exciting  
light installations by contemporary artists. Depending on weather  
conditions, the work “Leuchtturm” by Ecke Bonck has the capacity to  
beam up to eighteen kilometers into Karlsruhe’s urban space from the  
tower of the former munitions factory. The light capacity of the work  
“Sternschnuppe” by Michael Sailstorfer, exhibited on the grounds in  
front of ZKM, reaches the heights. The sculpture comprises a car and  
a street light, whose shield can be shot into the sky as an  
artificial shooting star.



Contact:

ZKM | Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie Karlsruhe
Lorenzstraße 19
76135 Karlsruhe
Fon: 0049(0)721 / 8100 – 1200
Fax: 0049(0)721 / 8100 – 1139
E-Mail: info at zkm.de