AND SYRIA?
Reinhild Gerum
01 - 15.11.2012
Reinhild Gerum is an artist from Germany. The 1st of November she opens a solo exhibition at the Arosita Gallery in Sofia. It is her second solo exhibition in Sofia: the first was in 2010 at the Sofia Press Gallery. Furthermore, she has participated in several events in Bulgaria or for the exchange with Bulgaria.
The artist presents two groups of artwork: installations and drawings, created during the last few years.
Reinhild Gerum´s installations give us a deep look into extreme situations of human life: like escape, violence or auto aggression. The materials which she works with in these installations are iron, iron wire, plastic foil. On the foils she writes down interviews, stories told by people who have lived extreme situations; experiences and events that changed everything in life. Mental border situations like hopeless loneliness are topics she works on, too.
The attacks of 9/11 were perceived as a threat that would change many things all over the world. Days after the event nobody knew how things would go on, how change would take place, there was a certain kind of uncertainty and fear. Soon after 9/11, Reinhild Gerum started with a series of colourful drawings STANDORTBESTIMMUNG (Position Fixing). On a red grounded paper she works with oil pastels; then she scratches away with a cutter nearly all of the oil pastel. What stays are cinch marks and under it an intense red ground. The red colour represents energy, shining through all the other colours. For the artist it was an important challenge to generate and develop energy during that difficult and depressive time full of fear.