Christoph Brech (born 1964 in Schweinfurt) marries the experience of nature with art and culture. His video art prefers image over narrative; it is meditative and does not shrink away from transcendence. Inspired by found objects and random discoveries, his artistic universe is constantly in motion, full of sounds and astonishment. Perpetuating the spirit of the cabinet of curiosities, Brech’s art gives us hope that there is a future in this world’s dreaming.
In two programmes, the exhibition offers insights into Brech’s video oeuvre.
The first programme (24 February – 22 March 2023) focuses on circular motion. Sea monsters on a carousel in New York’s Battery Park dance to Renaissance music. Or the camera pans slowly through 180 degrees for a breath-taking panorama of the Sound of Raasay in Scotland. To a soundtrack of the seventh movement of Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time, the artist transforms the artificial brightness of the English seaside town of Blackpool into a mystical play of light. Brech observes the “corona moon” or a huge flock of starlings that conquer the sky over Rome as the stage for a abstract ballet. With the addition of music by Johann Sebastian Bach, found footage that shows stranded airline passengers from an unusual perspective becomes a humorous apotheosis of boredom.
Films: Seaglass (2022), Coronamond (2020), Sound of Raasay 180° (2014), La fin du temps (2011), La sosta (2010), Ash Cloud (2010)
In the second programme (23 March – 23 April 2023) Brech puts images to one of the best-known compositions by Richard Strauss. Rather than illustrating the Alpine Symphony with obvious footage of mountains and natural phenomena, however, the artist probes deeper, reconstructing the piece’s intellectual roots that lie in the composer’s reading of Nietzsche. An elaborate mise-en-scène links the music with the lifecycle of a human being walking over the abyss on a tightrope.
Film: Alpensinfonie (2016)
Please note that the exhibition will unfortunately not be accessible all day on Saturday, 18 March 2023 due to the preparation of an evening event. Thank you very much for your understanding.