Bernardí Roig: EXCESS

The exhibition EXCESS in the Centre for International Light Art presents works by one of the most important representatives of the contemporary Spanish art scene. From November 24, 2018 to April 14, 2019 large-scale installations by the sculptor and multi-media artist Bernardí Roig (*1965, Majorca) will be on display. The artist’s works offer a critical perspective on the human conflict with one’s surrounding—largely media-based—influences. Figures sculpted in polyester resin combined with fluorescent tubes characterise this motif in Roig’s work and form the focus of the present exhibition.

The light in Roig’s works is not a light which brings clarity. It is a light which dazzles rather than illuminates, which isolates rather than connects. Roig says, “We live in an environment filled with images, but the experience they produce is not very intense. It is more difficult today to give a picture meaning. We are subjected to light, to a light that blurs the clear outlines of things, a kind of white line within which everything is in motion.” The cold neon light resembles the flood of light-based images brought about by the digital revolution. Roig is concerned with the loss of social and individual identity, and with the loneliness perhaps caused by the lack of direct communication. We see humans who experience light as a burden. Light is shown as oppressive, as demanding too much of the human senses, as the dark side of excess. Roig’s works have been exhibited at numerous international venues, among them the 54th Biennale in Venice, the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, the Kunstmuseum in Bonn and the Alte Pinakothek in Munich. They are found in public and private collections throughout the world. Now his intense and powerfully topical installations are being shown at the Centre for International Light Art in Unna, Germany. Six large sculptures are on display in the main exhibition spaces. Other works are positioned at unexpected locations in the museum. The artist has also created a work specifically designed for Unna’s exhibition space.

In its form, the Centre for International Light Art in the former Linden beer brewery is worldwide the first and only museum that focuses on the presentation of light art. The encounter between avant-garde light art and historic building substance creates a distinctive atmosphere and stages an exciting dialogue between the past and the future. Visible from afar by its 52 metres high sky reaching chimney, since 2001 this contemporary art form is shown deep underground in a presentation area of 2.600 square meters. All installations were especially created for the characteristic museum spaces, and are individually tailored to their location in their aesthetic and technical appearance. Meanwhile, thirteen of the most internationally renowned light artists created permanent installations. Mario Merz, Joseph Kosuth, Mischa Kuball, Rebecca Horn, Christina Kubisch, Keith Sonnier, Jan van Munster, François Morellet, Christian Boltanski, Brigitte Kowanz and Olafur Eliasson. Focus of the collection are two major works by James Turrell.

For press and media inquiries, please contact Jonathan Stockhorst at stockhorst.artpress [​at​] uteweingarten.de.