Page 169 - cairo Beinnale 13
P. 169
ro Binnale 13th 2019United in Diversity
A belief in new technology, a reflection of its impacts on contemporary society, its oppor-
tunities but also its dangers is at the centre of Brigitte Kowanz’ installation entitled ‘United
in Diversity’ for the 13th Cairo Biennale. Light is not only the foundation of life, it is also the
basis of post-analogue communication.
Brigitte Kowanz developed her own artistic vocabulary of light over the course of more than
three decades of artistic work. Vocabulary is meant literally here to the extent that Brigitte
Kowanz deploys light as language, as code. She employs pure light as an autonomous me-
dia, just as in former times the painters worked with pure colour. One important aspect of
her art is the use of language deriving from the experience of urban spaces and the ideog-
raphy of Conceptual Art. This space is simultaneously expanded for the body into a virtual
space by means of mirrors, two-way mirrors, artificial light and so forth. The words conduct
the visitor in a conceptual space, in a fictional space, in a mental space. Kowanz models or
references the Internet’s global data space. With this light installation, an extension of her
previous light boxes, Brigitte Kowanz not only offers a sensory experience but also address-
es a technical development that radically altered human life: the Internet. Brigitte Kowanz
thus made use of two statements about the Internet, which she translated into Morse Code.
With the date 12.03.1989, she referenced the presentation of the Internet at CERN, Geneva,
by Tim Berners-Lee. With the date 06.08.1991, she commemorated the moment when the
first website went online, when the Internet became accessible for all. She models or refer-
ences the Internet‘s global data space. What will a world after and beyond writing look like?
How will we live in a world where real space and virtual space merge? How will we cope
with the infinity of these data spaces? The encounter with herself in the mirror brings the
viewer back to herself and her experience of the world. Numerous conceptual meta levels
emerge. A human being perceives herself or himself as a nomad between codes. The infor-
mation of the Internet based on codes is transported by light via electromagnetic waves. Bri-
gitte Kowanz’s central operating principle, light coding, anticipates the world of the Internet
because coding is the foundation of digitalisation and therefore the Internet. (Peter Weibel)
Besides being a main source of everyday communication, the influence of the Internet and
Social Media (i.e. Facebook, Twitter and YouTube), goes to the extent of actually changing
and shaping societies all over the world. New technology and Social Media are ambivalent
dispositifs. On the one hand, the immersive screens of our smartphones contribute to the
absorption from reality into a digital space. At the same time, these spaces are spaces of en-
counter, in which people from all over the globe are united in diversity. Within this installa-
tion, Brigitte Kowanz overlaps different mediums of light, mirrors and spaces to address two
types of reality. While standing in real spaces, viewers will encounter their reflection within
the extended virtual space of the mirror works. Traditionally, light is a source of cognition.
Hence, the encounter the artist initiates, ignites a reality check, a reflection of current status,
somewhere between virtual and real, space and time.
167
A belief in new technology, a reflection of its impacts on contemporary society, its oppor-
tunities but also its dangers is at the centre of Brigitte Kowanz’ installation entitled ‘United
in Diversity’ for the 13th Cairo Biennale. Light is not only the foundation of life, it is also the
basis of post-analogue communication.
Brigitte Kowanz developed her own artistic vocabulary of light over the course of more than
three decades of artistic work. Vocabulary is meant literally here to the extent that Brigitte
Kowanz deploys light as language, as code. She employs pure light as an autonomous me-
dia, just as in former times the painters worked with pure colour. One important aspect of
her art is the use of language deriving from the experience of urban spaces and the ideog-
raphy of Conceptual Art. This space is simultaneously expanded for the body into a virtual
space by means of mirrors, two-way mirrors, artificial light and so forth. The words conduct
the visitor in a conceptual space, in a fictional space, in a mental space. Kowanz models or
references the Internet’s global data space. With this light installation, an extension of her
previous light boxes, Brigitte Kowanz not only offers a sensory experience but also address-
es a technical development that radically altered human life: the Internet. Brigitte Kowanz
thus made use of two statements about the Internet, which she translated into Morse Code.
With the date 12.03.1989, she referenced the presentation of the Internet at CERN, Geneva,
by Tim Berners-Lee. With the date 06.08.1991, she commemorated the moment when the
first website went online, when the Internet became accessible for all. She models or refer-
ences the Internet‘s global data space. What will a world after and beyond writing look like?
How will we live in a world where real space and virtual space merge? How will we cope
with the infinity of these data spaces? The encounter with herself in the mirror brings the
viewer back to herself and her experience of the world. Numerous conceptual meta levels
emerge. A human being perceives herself or himself as a nomad between codes. The infor-
mation of the Internet based on codes is transported by light via electromagnetic waves. Bri-
gitte Kowanz’s central operating principle, light coding, anticipates the world of the Internet
because coding is the foundation of digitalisation and therefore the Internet. (Peter Weibel)
Besides being a main source of everyday communication, the influence of the Internet and
Social Media (i.e. Facebook, Twitter and YouTube), goes to the extent of actually changing
and shaping societies all over the world. New technology and Social Media are ambivalent
dispositifs. On the one hand, the immersive screens of our smartphones contribute to the
absorption from reality into a digital space. At the same time, these spaces are spaces of en-
counter, in which people from all over the globe are united in diversity. Within this installa-
tion, Brigitte Kowanz overlaps different mediums of light, mirrors and spaces to address two
types of reality. While standing in real spaces, viewers will encounter their reflection within
the extended virtual space of the mirror works. Traditionally, light is a source of cognition.
Hence, the encounter the artist initiates, ignites a reality check, a reflection of current status,
somewhere between virtual and real, space and time.
167
