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DIALOGE IN TWO WORLDS
by Johannes Kögler
Jens Reulecke lives in two worlds: on one hand there is the Western-European culture, in which he was born, raised, and where he received his art training; and on the other hand he has been living in Africa, in the Nigerien culture for eight years. Through regular visits and exhibitions in Germany he has been continually in contact with the western art scene. But his works are being influenced more by his experience in Niger. This influence does not necessarily manifest itself in the stylistic elements of African art that we have seen since the beginning of the 20th century, but rather through basic experiences of another way of life and world view. At present Jens Reuleckes art work is mainly expressed in photography and sculptures.
Photography
Jens Reuleckes photographs seem foreign and mysterious. Looking at them isnpires a wish to find out more about the motifs and themes that are portrayed. Each photo concentrates on three main motifs: landscape, man and work of art. The work of art can be a sculpture or pieces of material that were found in the landscape. Before we look at the themes and the motifs of the photography we will examine their character. The photos are individuel pieces of art. But they are also documents of works of art in different aspects. Jens Reulecke puts projects of art in the Nigerien landscape that follow Land Art. He changes the landscape through the setting of materials (earth, stones) that he finds in the area. Photography is a medium that will transfer these perishable and local works through time and place, and present them to the audience. Something similar happens with the sculptures, so that although they can be transported to other places, they still appear differently in each new context. The photos do not only portray a work of art in a landscape, but with the addition of man they add another active and telling part. Man, in this case an African, acts and reacts in a certain way to the respective work of art. This (re)action is only presented in a concentrated moment in the pictures, focused on one whose before and after can only be guessed. The photographs show different styles of contemporary modern art expressions: photography, sculpture, Land Art and Performance. We will mainly look at photographs that show sculptures as well as landscape and man, and then move on to sculptures as autonomous works of art that an audience in an exhibition experiences personally.
Landscape
The landscape is on one hand a very special landscape in the West African country of Niger, which influences his art, and becomes part of his works through photography. On the other hand the examples of the lanscape that we see in the photographs are so non-specific, without any characteristic recognizable geographical elements, that they form a broader character. If you do not want to call it a desert, you could call it a desolate place in a bare and conformable almost formless landscape, without special characteritics, without marks, without places.
Sculpture
How does the sculpture affect the landscape? Before looking at his question let us examine some of the sculptures more closely. Basically these sculptures are non-objective, concrete works, that themselves are new inventions and creations. Some sculptures remind us of known objects and seem to have been made to be put to use. Their material and their form vocabulary follow aspects of Constructivism as well as Arte Povera and Minimalism. The works Unit (ill. 16) and Block (ill. 17) are made of iron and wood, two very opposing materials. Wood as a natural material is only treated rudimentarily (sawed and carved) and is put into clear blocklike forms. The iron shows band and angled profiles, connections been made with simple bolts and nuts. The surface remains mostly untouched, rust is left on purpose. The material seems relatively raw and unrefined and radiates a strong directness and immediacy. That reminds us of materials that are used in trade and industry. The sculptures show a great clarety in their forms. All forms are based on right angles and take the three basic axes into account: height, width, depth. Wood and iron represent different functions in the sculptures. Wood appears as a compact form, as a rectangular prism in different proportions, as volume. The iron profiles are built together as scaffolds or carriers, that embrace the space rather than occupy it. It is characteristic of Jens Reuleckes sculptures that the iron constructions are carriers of the wooden blocks, they hold them and encircle them. That is valid for the works Unit and Block, but also for the wall works 3x (ill. 20, 22), 2x (ill. 21) and Layering (ill. 23). The iron construction of Unit describes an open rectangle with three sides of different lenght. The upper carriers hold two flat iron pieces, that carry the five wooden blocks that are layered on top of each other. Something similar can be found with Block, where two wooden blocks with iron supports are placed a certain distance from and parallel to each other. Both sculptures are characterised by an inner wooden body and an outer carrying iron scaffold. Iron takes the weight bearing of the wood. The scultures unfold themselves from the inside to the outside: starting with the massif, compact wooden center and along the constructive iron scaffold, which compared to the wooden center describes more volume, not filling it but moving into the empty space which surrounds the sculpture. The quotation about the invasion of space (Henri Laurens) describes this event in two ways. While the wooden rectangular prisms are mainly experienced as volumes, the iron scaffolds express the emptiness that they encircle. The iron constructions dictate the space not only by invasion but through the definition of axes which point out beyond the sculptures borders. When a sculpture is put in a landscape we can see the changes that this landscape undergoes. Suddenly, the landscape that we characterised as barren and formless, a desolate place, gets a point of relation, a center. The sculpture becomes a mark in the landscape because it is so different from ist surroundings and so individual and characteric. Though this marking, a place is formed in the landscape, a place that is characterised by being localized, described, named and found. These characteristics are all specific to places in a broad sense and distinguish them from non-places. With the presence of the sculpture in the landscape we can describe relations in space. The sculpture determines the landcape in a new way, as it gives it a center, a zeropoint in a imaginary coordinate sytem, that shows the three dimensions of space.
The Land Art settings also accomplish something similar. The creative power of the artist that works against entropy can be seen even more clearly than in the sculptures. The constant drive of things to an even distribution that can be seen in the photographed landscape is confronted by the artist in his way to order and create the dissembled parts anew (Field I, II, III, ill. 4, 5, 6). Only in the apparent creativity that is characterised by energy and a creative will and not through different materials, are the Land Art works distinguished differently by the landscape. Like the sculptures they become marks that form a place and give it a unique structure.
Man
The observance and experience of landscape and work of art requires the presense of a human being, as spectator or/and an active participant. The lens of the camera represents the human eye in the role of a passive spectator. But in addition, Jens Reulecke shows man as a third motif in the picture. Man is shown acting and reacting. He relates in different ways to the sculpture, sometimes in still observance (Untitled, ill. 18), and once in motion encircling the sculpture (Spin, ill. 15). Elsewhere he shows other attitudes towards the sculpture or the Land Art settings, in different rituals or in walking certain ways. Man in the photographs does not represent one individual being but rather man in a broader sense He is a figure for identification and represents the spectator. He shows posibilities of active dialogue with works of art, that goes beyond a mere observance and characterises a special way of interaction and confrontation. In an exhibition of sculptures and photographs by Jens Reulecke, the spectator is asked to come into direct dialogue with the sculptures, to experience them in their bodylike presence, in their material and formal appearance and in their relation to space. He is challenged to find and define his own position.
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MANIFESTATIONS OF PLACES
JENS REULECKES SCULPTURES AND PHOTOGRAPHY
by Paul Corazolla
Space, horizon, tranquility. Beyond that an endless space and more. How do you live, how do you think, how do you feel and work through these experiences as an European artist? Can we as over-satiated people who are always longing for new attractions and entertainment still hear a message? Jens Reulecke has been living in Niger since 1992. Western zeitgeist cannot be found there. Horizons that have been closed behind our world are still visible in Niger. Scarcity is what you experience when looking at Reuleckes work. Scarcity is the first sign that reaches us from this world where Reulecke lives. You will not find exuberant eyecatching festivals or the opulence of softly esthetic arrangements. Spectacular attitudes dont belong to this kind of art which evokes distinctly different expressions in the vastness and tranquility of this country and in its scarcity of place manifestations. Could these expressions be an alternative to the experiences and expectations that we are so used to? What message do they convey? When Jens Reulecke talks about his African work he often uses a certain type of vocabulary which is familiar to us through contemporary art. Materials like leather, wood, iron, cloth and sand can also be found in many works of Western artists, to some degree as a reorientation to elementary cultures. Their dominance in Reuleckes oeuvre is explained by their daily usage by the Nigerien people. Reuleckes contact with them inspires his choice of material in his works. Jens Reulecke talks about places of moved tranquility which took the place of wild motion of his earlier work. Externally this is visible through the combination of joined generous geometrical shapes, like the various layers of wooden bars or the forms resting inside of each other which appear in reduced clarity and density while creating an aura of tranquility and concentration. The photographs of places in the Nigerien landscape stress the possibility of various reactions within a provided space. The possibilities of man to reach out and come into contact. Like playing with various equal possibilities of closeness which can lead to the state of tranquility. Traces of a diguised presence appear on the metal surface of the wallsculpture in abeyance. In front of it, placed on the floor is the wooden sculpture bowl, a symbol for reception and retaining. Both objects (ill. 3) viewed together associate a place of sacrifice, a concealed process of offering and devotion. Scarcity of signs dont intrude but stimulate carefully our experiences and like to open up a different door to life. Jens Reulecke talks about crossings into another sphere which is described in the exhibition title secret spaces. Something which exists in life but is revealing itself only in a limited way. But Reuleckes spaces are not of timeless duration. Their manifestations are signs of a road on which we travel to move across our final destination, the world, to ists end. And then where to? Where to? Jens Reulecke and his Nigerien friends are more interested in this question than in show business, football and stock exchange.
deutsch | englisch
DIALOGE IN TWO WORLDS
by Johannes Kögler
Jens Reulecke lives in two worlds: on one hand there is the Western-European culture, in which he was born, raised, and where he received his art training; and on the other hand he has been living in Africa, in the Nigerien culture for eight years. Through regular visits and exhibitions in Germany he has been continually in contact with the western art scene. But his works are being influenced more by his experience in Niger. This influence does not necessarily manifest itself in the stylistic elements of African art that we have seen since the beginning of the 20th century, but rather through basic experiences of another way of life and world view. At present Jens Reuleckes art work is mainly expressed in photography and sculptures.
Photography
Jens Reuleckes photographs seem foreign and mysterious. Looking at them isnpires a wish to find out more about the motifs and themes that are portrayed. Each photo concentrates on three main motifs: landscape, man and work of art. The work of art can be a sculpture or pieces of material that were found in the landscape. Before we look at the themes and the motifs of the photography we will examine their character. The photos are individuel pieces of art. But they are also documents of works of art in different aspects. Jens Reulecke puts projects of art in the Nigerien landscape that follow Land Art. He changes the landscape through the setting of materials (earth, stones) that he finds in the area. Photography is a medium that will transfer these perishable and local works through time and place, and present them to the audience. Something similar happens with the sculptures, so that although they can be transported to other places, they still appear differently in each new context. The photos do not only portray a work of art in a landscape, but with the addition of man they add another active and telling part. Man, in this case an African, acts and reacts in a certain way to the respective work of art. This (re)action is only presented in a concentrated moment in the pictures, focused on one whose before and after can only be guessed. The photographs show different styles of contemporary modern art expressions: photography, sculpture, Land Art and Performance. We will mainly look at photographs that show sculptures as well as landscape and man, and then move on to sculptures as autonomous works of art that an audience in an exhibition experiences personally.
Landscape
The landscape is on one hand a very special landscape in the West African country of Niger, which influences his art, and becomes part of his works through photography. On the other hand the examples of the lanscape that we see in the photographs are so non-specific, without any characteristic recognizable geographical elements, that they form a broader character. If you do not want to call it a desert, you could call it a desolate place in a bare and conformable almost formless landscape, without special characteritics, without marks, without places.
Sculpture
How does the sculpture affect the landscape? Before looking at his question let us examine some of the sculptures more closely. Basically these sculptures are non-objective, concrete works, that themselves are new inventions and creations. Some sculptures remind us of known objects and seem to have been made to be put to use. Their material and their form vocabulary follow aspects of Constructivism as well as Arte Povera and Minimalism. The works Unit (ill. 16) and Block (ill. 17) are made of iron and wood, two very opposing materials. Wood as a natural material is only treated rudimentarily (sawed and carved) and is put into clear blocklike forms. The iron shows band and angled profiles, connections been made with simple bolts and nuts. The surface remains mostly untouched, rust is left on purpose. The material seems relatively raw and unrefined and radiates a strong directness and immediacy. That reminds us of materials that are used in trade and industry. The sculptures show a great clarety in their forms. All forms are based on right angles and take the three basic axes into account: height, width, depth. Wood and iron represent different functions in the sculptures. Wood appears as a compact form, as a rectangular prism in different proportions, as volume. The iron profiles are built together as scaffolds or carriers, that embrace the space rather than occupy it. It is characteristic of Jens Reuleckes sculptures that the iron constructions are carriers of the wooden blocks, they hold them and encircle them. That is valid for the works Unit and Block, but also for the wall works 3x (ill. 20, 22), 2x (ill. 21) and Layering (ill. 23). The iron construction of Unit describes an open rectangle with three sides of different lenght. The upper carriers hold two flat iron pieces, that carry the five wooden blocks that are layered on top of each other. Something similar can be found with Block, where two wooden blocks with iron supports are placed a certain distance from and parallel to each other. Both sculptures are characterised by an inner wooden body and an outer carrying iron scaffold. Iron takes the weight bearing of the wood. The scultures unfold themselves from the inside to the outside: starting with the massif, compact wooden center and along the constructive iron scaffold, which compared to the wooden center describes more volume, not filling it but moving into the empty space which surrounds the sculpture. The quotation about the invasion of space (Henri Laurens) describes this event in two ways. While the wooden rectangular prisms are mainly experienced as volumes, the iron scaffolds express the emptiness that they encircle. The iron constructions dictate the space not only by invasion but through the definition of axes which point out beyond the sculptures borders. When a sculpture is put in a landscape we can see the changes that this landscape undergoes. Suddenly, the landscape that we characterised as barren and formless, a desolate place, gets a point of relation, a center. The sculpture becomes a mark in the landscape because it is so different from ist surroundings and so individual and characteric. Though this marking, a place is formed in the landscape, a place that is characterised by being localized, described, named and found. These characteristics are all specific to places in a broad sense and distinguish them from non-places. With the presence of the sculpture in the landscape we can describe relations in space. The sculpture determines the landcape in a new way, as it gives it a center, a zeropoint in a imaginary coordinate sytem, that shows the three dimensions of space.
The Land Art settings also accomplish something similar. The creative power of the artist that works against entropy can be seen even more clearly than in the sculptures. The constant drive of things to an even distribution that can be seen in the photographed landscape is confronted by the artist in his way to order and create the dissembled parts anew (Field I, II, III, ill. 4, 5, 6). Only in the apparent creativity that is characterised by energy and a creative will and not through different materials, are the Land Art works distinguished differently by the landscape. Like the sculptures they become marks that form a place and give it a unique structure.
Man
The observance and experience of landscape and work of art requires the presense of a human being, as spectator or/and an active participant. The lens of the camera represents the human eye in the role of a passive spectator. But in addition, Jens Reulecke shows man as a third motif in the picture. Man is shown acting and reacting. He relates in different ways to the sculpture, sometimes in still observance (Untitled, ill. 18), and once in motion encircling the sculpture (Spin, ill. 15). Elsewhere he shows other attitudes towards the sculpture or the Land Art settings, in different rituals or in walking certain ways. Man in the photographs does not represent one individual being but rather man in a broader sense He is a figure for identification and represents the spectator. He shows posibilities of active dialogue with works of art, that goes beyond a mere observance and characterises a special way of interaction and confrontation. In an exhibition of sculptures and photographs by Jens Reulecke, the spectator is asked to come into direct dialogue with the sculptures, to experience them in their bodylike presence, in their material and formal appearance and in their relation to space. He is challenged to find and define his own position.
+++
MANIFESTATIONS OF PLACES
JENS REULECKES SCULPTURES AND PHOTOGRAPHY
by Paul Corazolla
Space, horizon, tranquility. Beyond that an endless space and more. How do you live, how do you think, how do you feel and work through these experiences as an European artist? Can we as over-satiated people who are always longing for new attractions and entertainment still hear a message? Jens Reulecke has been living in Niger since 1992. Western zeitgeist cannot be found there. Horizons that have been closed behind our world are still visible in Niger. Scarcity is what you experience when looking at Reuleckes work. Scarcity is the first sign that reaches us from this world where Reulecke lives. You will not find exuberant eyecatching festivals or the opulence of softly esthetic arrangements. Spectacular attitudes dont belong to this kind of art which evokes distinctly different expressions in the vastness and tranquility of this country and in its scarcity of place manifestations. Could these expressions be an alternative to the experiences and expectations that we are so used to? What message do they convey? When Jens Reulecke talks about his African work he often uses a certain type of vocabulary which is familiar to us through contemporary art. Materials like leather, wood, iron, cloth and sand can also be found in many works of Western artists, to some degree as a reorientation to elementary cultures. Their dominance in Reuleckes oeuvre is explained by their daily usage by the Nigerien people. Reuleckes contact with them inspires his choice of material in his works. Jens Reulecke talks about places of moved tranquility which took the place of wild motion of his earlier work. Externally this is visible through the combination of joined generous geometrical shapes, like the various layers of wooden bars or the forms resting inside of each other which appear in reduced clarity and density while creating an aura of tranquility and concentration. The photographs of places in the Nigerien landscape stress the possibility of various reactions within a provided space. The possibilities of man to reach out and come into contact. Like playing with various equal possibilities of closeness which can lead to the state of tranquility. Traces of a diguised presence appear on the metal surface of the wallsculpture in abeyance. In front of it, placed on the floor is the wooden sculpture bowl, a symbol for reception and retaining. Both objects (ill. 3) viewed together associate a place of sacrifice, a concealed process of offering and devotion. Scarcity of signs dont intrude but stimulate carefully our experiences and like to open up a different door to life. Jens Reulecke talks about crossings into another sphere which is described in the exhibition title secret spaces. Something which exists in life but is revealing itself only in a limited way. But Reuleckes spaces are not of timeless duration. Their manifestations are signs of a road on which we travel to move across our final destination, the world, to ists end. And then where to? Where to? Jens Reulecke and his Nigerien friends are more interested in this question than in show business, football and stock exchange.