SECOND REALITY

The famous German artist Mischa Kuball had an idea for his installation of Space-Speech-Speed ​​in the exhibition hall of the German-Azerbaijani cultural community Kapelhaus in Baku during his first visit to the capital of Azerbaijan. This was in 2017 and became possible thanks to the support of the Goethe-Zentrum Baku. This branch of the Goethe Institut is a cultural institution of Germany with branch offices in many countries of the world. The organization’s objective is to popularise the German language abroad and expand international cultural cooperation.

Lighting Artist

Mischa Kuball was born in 1959 in Dusseldorf. He has Slavic roots (Serbian father), studied medicine and psychology but became an artist, making his dream of doing art true. Today he is a professor at the Cologne Academy of Arts, a well-known artist in Europe and the U.S. His solo exhibitions were presented in major museums and galleries of the world: the Biennale in São Paulo (1998), the Jewish Museum of New York (2002), the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow (2003), the NTT-Comunication Centre in Tokyo (2008), the Centre Pompidou-Metz (2010), etc. His works are a topic of various discussions and books by Boris Groys (Soviet and German art critic, philosopher, writer, and publicist), Peter Weibel (Austrian artist, media art theorist), and Florian Matzner – famous representatives of modern world culture.

Installation

A small-sized hall creates an atmosphere of outer space, giving rise to a sense of the second reality. One forgets about the ceiling and walls here. Tilting your head, you look upwards, as if into the sky, and immediately "move" to where the myriad of stars come to you, and you fly among them, dissecting the space of soundlessness. You and the sky. You and the stars. You are a cosmic reality. Fantastic, fabulous… Far from usual everyday life, earthly. Probably, this is exactly what the cosmos looks like with its galaxies, black holes, planets. One starts recalling involuntarily the novels of Isaac Asimov, Stanislaw Lem, Ivan Yefremov, Ursula Le Guin...

The illusion of moving in the space of infinity appears. Fantastic feeling incomparable with anything else! Your head turns and the soil leaves from under your feet. It is good to meditate, indulge in dreams, invent fantastic stories, forgetting about the present. Maybe this is what a fusion of dream and reality looks like. Or the second reality? The one where the laws of fantasy and creativity rule? A space where your dreams artistically come true? Peace. Dream. Harmony. Catharsis. The will to creativity and creation. Life!

Dreaming of an ideal space

Artists are happy people. They are able to transform space, giving it a perfect form and content. Mischa Kuball works with light creating in the genre of light installation, and prefers the culture of "double-post" - the repetition of the same thing. At the heart of this culture is the digital style that transformed the postmodern model of the divided world into a model of dynamic chaos. Infinite multiplicity of meanings is replaced by the meaning of infinite sets – repetition. This culture is known for kinesthetic format, which is characterized by nonlinearity of motion, virtualization of spatial, tactile, and physical perceptions. The result is the expansion of the visible and spectacular.

The transition to this kind of art happened not suddenly, but quite naturally. Without going deep into the distant past of light-kinetic art, one of the founders of which was the famous Hungarian artist Laszlo Mohoy-Nagy, let's just say that the video installation, as a kind of special art, entered the life of world art in the 1990s. To express their concept, artists working with video installations use not only light, but also various spaces (open, closed), objects, nature (trees, ponds), architecture (facades of buildings, streets and squares of cities), computers, words, music. Mischa Kuball works with light in a dark closed space creating a real light choreography. The illusion of outer space is created with spheres covered with mirror plates and a stream of light directed at them. Balls rotate and the light refracted from their mirror surfaces creates a myriad of moving stars, exposing the Moon or its thin horn! Under this light, the image is constantly changing mesmerising the spectators by their rotation. One has an illusion of a beautiful peace that pacifies the soul, which fascinates and transforms the dream of an ideal space into reality. An exhibition of this kind is held for the first time In Baku, and enjoys great success among both tourists and citizens. It has an educational significance for the cultural context of the city, opens prospects for the development of light design among local artists and professionals of 3D-graphics. In particular, the exhibition of Mischa Kuball made a great impression on theatrical directors and artists, giving fantastic opportunities for the decoration of performances.

International Light Festivals

As an integral part of design art of the 21st century, light has become the subject of artistic dialogue between artists from different countries. International light festivals are held regularly, where aesthetics, energy efficiency and ergonomics of light installations are demonstrated. The festival held in Moscow (Russia) is called Circle of Light, in Lyon (France) - The Feast of Light, in Nuremberg (Germany) - Blue Night. Light installations at these festivals are erected on the streets, squares and parks of cities. At nights, museums are working, music and dance installations, illuminations are held throughout the city. Festivals turn into citywide festivals. They give a wonderful mood to the residents and give an opportunity for professionals to exchange art experience. We believe that Mischa Kuball's tours in Baku will start a new phenomenon that can take root in the Azerbaijani capital.

In the rhythms of music and light

Space-Speech-Speed is one of many light installations in the artist's work. He is the author of a series of works, the concept of which confirms that light changes not only the mood, but also the meaning of the public place. The artist does not limit his creativity to museum premises. He works with architectural buildings, proving that artistic and conceptual thought can transform any space including the external environment. Sometimes he holds his exhibition in silence: only light, people and silence, and sometimes - musical accompaniment. The successful opening of the exhibition in Baku was accompanied by the performance of DJ Hazi. Organizers offered viewers another music program - Dihaj. Sounds were used in the space of Kapelhaus, on the walls of which projected rotating light installations, embodying the artist's intention for emotional, aesthetic and visual fusion of the audience's perception. As he believes that a person is 60% made of water, he is created for resonance. "This is a frontier project that exists on the mix of modern architecture, light, electronic music, and public art," says Kuball. The art in an urban environment that targets an unprepared audience.