«Le Dieu - Les Dieux» at Kai 10, Arthena Foundation, Düsseldorf in "Frozen Mirrors" from 31.October 2024 - 26. April 2025

quoted from the website of Kai 10 Arthena Foundation:

The title Frozen Mirrors was inspired by Umberto Eco’s observation that the photographic plate is a “freezing mirror”. Before the invention of photography, mirrored images were the only ones that were not created by human hand. Mirrors, however, are unable to conserve or suspend in time the image they reveal. The retention or “freezing” of a certain moment or occurrence only became technically possible with the advent of the photographic snapshot.

The works presented in this group exhibition reflect the suspension of time in a period when we are unremittingly surrounded by moving images. On display, among others, will be “photorealistic” paintings that are not all based on photographs; artefacts that have been replicated exactly life size or in monumental dimensions; mises-en-scène of real objects that look like their own trompe l’ œils; photographs of everyday situations arranged like still lifes or conflating longer spans of time.

Today, motifs inspired by this still life tradition continue to have a place in product advertising, especially for foodstuffs. Likewise, faithful simulations of nature and optical illusions still enjoy great popularity in commercial applications of creative digital tools from design to AI software. When artists address and reflect this context, the question prompted by the vanitas motif associated with still life – as a reminder of the transience of all that is earth-bound and mortal – is whether there is still any reality behind medial projections and algorithmic computations.

with: Georges Adéagbo, Helene Appel, Guillaume Bijl, Saskia Groneberg, Karin Kneffel, Rona Kobel, Wolfgang Matuschek, Stefanie Pöllot, Lilla von Puttkamer, Florian Slotawa, Konstantin Totibadze, Michael Wesely, René Wirths, Melanie Woste

curated by Ludwig Seifarth

Details about the exhibition "Frozen Mirrors"