The Ruhr area in Germany has been transforming its industrial character into a new cultural identity for some time now. The status of cultural capital for the entire area and the first edition of a biennial centred on light are the most recent examples of this process.
All cities try to find their plus point of interest to attract capital in the form of investments, production, companies or tourism. Development, in short. Culture has always played a prominent role in this panorama and not only in recent times (it was no coincidence that the first edition of Documenta took place in Kassel), although it has been in recent decades that these dynamics have intensified. And obviously, the biennial format is ideal in this context. A clear example is Manifesta, the nomadic European biennial that began its journey in Rotterdam to travel to alternative cities to the main capitals, such as Ljubljana, Luxembourg, Trentino and the Tyrol and this year Murcia. In the case of the Ruhr area, it is no longer a single city that is fighting to get on the list of culturally interesting capitals, but rather an entire geographical area in the process of redefining its identity. The context is not easy, since we are not talking about “charming” or “cool” cities, but rather places where the industrial past has a significant weight and which could easily have been locations for Ken Loach films. The names of these cities are not Cologne or Düsseldorf, but Bergkamen, Essen, Unna, Lünen or Hamm.
If the goal is to put it on the map, it is worth focusing on some specificity that is already present in the context. In the case at hand, the Biennale für Internationale Lichtkunst, light is the theme. This is no coincidence, since in some way the theme of energy and light is part of the DNA of the area, as decisive elements in the process of transformation from an industrial zone to a modern metropolis. Near Oberhausen is one of the most famous illuminated logos, that of the Bayer laboratories. Likewise, walking through the area at Christmas time means facing an orgy of illuminated Christmas decorations both in shops and in private homes. In this context, the Zentrum für Internationale Lichtkunst opened its doors in Unna in 2001 and it is in this context that this biennial centred on light is located. Although the literal translation would be “art of light”, luckily the subject is treated in a way that is not fundamentalist, but rather ambiguous. In other words, it is not about showing works literally made with light, but the approach is much more sophisticated.
The second aspect to highlight, which makes it interesting, is the scope of work and exhibition, which is that projects by artists (60) are shown in private spaces. Yes, yes, in living rooms, girls’ rooms, storage rooms, garages or swimming pools in private homes; The most important thing is to visit the places where the owners (doctors, professionals, housewives, antique dealers, mechanics, teachers, a politician – what a great image operation! – show the visitors the works they host. I don’t know if the hosts will still be as eager to explain things at the end of May, when the Biennale is almost over, as they were at the beginning. Some of the owners of the “venues” were familiar with contemporary art, others simply responded to an advertisement in a newspaper. In some cases, there was real work on site by the artist, in others, the simple installation of a work loaned by a museum, or in other cases, there was more curatorial work by the person in charge of the biennial, Mathias Wagner K. Wagner K is a German curator, based in Berlin, who has explicitly expressed his debt to the exhibition “Chambre d’amis” which took place in 70 private houses and was curated by Jan Hoet in Ghent in 1986 (the project that put him on the springboard to direct Documenta in 1992) and which impressed Wagner K when he was a student.
Even without knowing what will happen with the second edition of this biennial, whether it will be held in just one of these cities, whether it will be nomadic or what the theme will be, the exceptionality of this first edition lies in two aspects: first, approaching the theme of light in a very broad way, which in addition to including in the list of artists the “usual suspects” such as Michel Verjux or James Turrell bets on others that are much less obvious. The second success lies in that wandering through private environments and the conversations that are generated, that is, in that the art becomes a very everyday occurrence.
It is impossible to comment on all the works, because the level is certainly uneven, but it is worth highlighting different cases. The Icelandic artist Heimir Björgúlfsson, who usually uses animals to refer to human behaviour, turned the storage room of the young antique dealer Jens Bartusch into an environment full of hunters and hunted, predators and victims, using stuffed animals and other elements belonging to Bartusch himself. Mathias Wagner K carried out a delicate curatorial work by installing Bas Jan Ader’s piece with the phrase “Please, don’t leave me” in a chapel. Julius Popp made a spectacular installation in Mrs. Stahl’s swimming pool in which a series of words taken from the Internet fell, made with water and light. A living room installation by Jenny Holzer with messages written on LEDs alluding to the public-private fluidity, was presented in a corner of the Leithe living room. Maix Mayer presented a video in the room that the Brückner family uses as a screening room. The video consisted of a recording of a Thai New Year tradition in which light, fire, firecrackers and fireworks take center stage, appealing to the resilience of those who celebrate it. And finally, a geometric light sculpture by Sylvie Fleury blended so well into the room of two teenagers in the Giering family’s apartment that it left us with the feeling of intruding too much into an intimacy of which we were not a part.
So, there are big questions regarding future editions and also regarding the theme of light, but this does not prevent us from highlighting the curatorial work of Mathias Wagner K, who with his intelligent approach introduces a debate on topics such as public space, urban life, the identity of cities (a great topic if we consider that some of them, like Bergkamen, were founded in 1966 as a result of the union of six communities) and the role that art can play in all this.
