Mantids, also known as praying mantises, adapt to their environment. With each molt, the color of the mantis’ body gets a little closer to that of its habitat. In this way they are ideally camouflaged. Man goes a different way. He adapts the environment to himself and his needs, subdues it, often without much consideration. The artist Chris Bierl, born in 1980 in the Upper Palatinate, now living in Berlin, places these two very contrasting ways at the center of his work. Bierl is not satisfied with just describing animals, he incorporates them directly into his work – living praying mantises are part of the exhibition that the Kallmann Museum in Ismaning is now showing.
Bierl’s approach of questioning the interdependence of people, animals, the environment and living space in this way convinced the jury of the Kallmann Prize. From around 300 applicants, she awarded the artist the prize worth 8,500 euros at last year’s competition, which was entitled “Animal”. Bierl’s installations, photographs, sound and video works can be seen in Ismaning until March 27th, in a compilation that was specially developed and supplemented for the museum.
Probably the most unusual experience awaits visitors in room three. Six large, monochrome canvases hang on the walls. The colors resemble different earth tones, from light brown to black, reminiscent of Bierl’s longer stays and hikes in Japan. Only when you take a closer look does the eye perceive movement in the images. An Asian praying mantis sits on each screen. You can move freely on the area. As frugal ambush hunters, they do not leave their surroundings, but wait, in nature often for days, for prey to approach. Like a leaf in the wind, one of the insects gently sways back and forth. Dance, curls, camouflage at the same time. The artwork is alive, constantly changing without the influence of the artist. The viewer becomes the observed.
Art by the namesake: Works by Hans Jürgen Kallmann show Norwegian and Icelandic landscapes.
(Photo: Florian Peljak)
With this series entitled “Anime”, Bierl raises personal questions in the viewer more intensely than almost any other artist. What are we seeing here? art or nature? Who or what do we grant which protection, do we consider it worth preserving? Could such a reduced habitat as represented by a monochromatic, coarse-pored canvas possibly be the future of the planet we are heading for, barren and empty? Or does the frugality and adaptability of the praying mantis, which is one of the oldest creatures on earth, point the way? Do we feel fear, disgust, curiosity at the sight of the insect?
Works by Hans Jürgen Kallmann can be seen in the east wing of the museum
Bierl also confronts us with elementary questions in his other works. Bierl first studied photography at the Munich University of Applied Sciences before becoming a master student at the Leipzig Academy of Visual Arts. He is particularly interested in remote regions, which he documents with his camera. Impressive photographs from Iceland and Norway show landscapes, rocky crevices and lakes that appear to have been untouched by humans. In their roughness, they radiate power and menace, but also a tender soul. In contrast to this are the pictures that Bierl took in the Russian expanse near the city of Karabash. Copper has been produced there in large quantities for decades. Production has destroyed the entire surrounding ecosystem, leaving a landscape inhospitable to humans and animals.
At the same time, a selection of works by the museum’s namesake can be seen in the east wing of the museum. The painter Hans Jürgen Kallmann, who died in 1991, liked to use animals as motifs, especially in his early work, to which he gave his own personality with fine brushstrokes. The quiet, sometimes gloomy landscape paintings that museum director Rasmus Kleine has combined with the animal motifs create a connection to Chris Bierl’s works, whose acoustic elements are still wafting over from the next room.
The exhibitions “Mutual Adaptation” by Chris Bierl and “Tiere” by Hans Jürgen Kallmann can be seen in the Kallmann Museum Ismaning until March 27th. There, as everywhere for cultural sites, the 2-G-plus rule applies: Vaccinated people and Genesis who can also show a negative test (no self-test) have access. Visitors with a booster vaccination are – after 14 days – exempt from the test obligation. Wearing an FFP2 mask is mandatory.