Let cities shine – this could be the cross-plant motto of Jan Kuck ring. In his projects, the concept artist tries to use light to focus on topics that are important to him. In autumn of this year, for example, with the “Designwalk.Art” to the pandemic-orphaned Bavarian inner cities. The art walks through Munich, Augsburg, Passau and Nuremberg were intended to lure people back to the cities with light and neon installations. The Berliner has already implemented many projects in Munich, and is now moving his place of residence entirely here.
Monday: For a new one
A move is pending: After 17 exciting years in Berlin, I have now moved my main residence to Munich. A step that I could never have imagined before. But Corona has changed a lot. Above all, Munich welcomed me with open arms, and as a visual artist I actually have more opportunities here than in Berlin. Thanks to my agent Isabel Bernheimer, I have found people here who are just as passionate as I am and who really want to implement something and make a difference instead of just talking about it. So I use the day to arrive in Munich and look forward to everything that comes. Even if such a move is always associated with a lot of work, sadness and uncertainty.
Tuesday: Flaming landscapes
With the light installation “The Burning River” Jan Kuck transformed the Isar in front of the Munich Praterinsel in March 2020 into an artistic sea of flames.
(Photo: Hannes Magerstaedt)
An exciting appointment is due at 10 a.m. in the industrial park in Gilching. Oliver Lembke is sitting there with his company “Limelight Veranstaltungstechnik” and discussing with me how we can revive “The Burning River” in the mountains of Davos as “The Burning Mountain” next February. With Lembke I have already realized several larger outdoor installations and have found a friendly confidante in him who understands my crazy ideas and always works with me to find a solution. In March 2020 we were able to transform about 100 meters of the Isar in front of the Praterinsel into an artistic sea of flames and inspire many people. We will now adapt and expand this for a snow-covered ski slope.
Wednesday: Club culture at a distance
The exhibition “Nachts. Clubkultur in München” in the Stadtmuseum takes its visitors on a foray through the night (scene with Sammy Davis Jr. in Munich, 1972).
(Photo: City Museum Munich)
In the morning I will perform our almost daily ritual with my girlfriend: Corona test. Because later in the day it goes to the exhibition “Night. Club culture in Munich” in the city museum. Since we haven’t been able to visit any clubs since the pandemic or simply haven’t dared each other, we can at least emotionally immerse ourselves in a world that has long been a matter of course for our self-dispersion. In the afternoon I go to the Children’s art house, see if everything is okay with my neon installation hanging in the windows and buy craft bags there for my sister’s children. With these, the little ones can take part in one of the numerous online courses and make wonderfully crazy things under expert guidance.
Thursday: change of perspective
James Ensor’s “The Painting Skeleton” from 1896 can be seen in the exhibition “Fantastically real. Belgian Modernism from Ensor to Magritte” in the Munich Kunsthalle.
(Photo: Hugo Maertens / KMSKA Collection)
Marmot-like: the Conora test. Then we go to the exhibition “Fantastically real. Belgian Modernism from Ensor to Magritte” in the Kunsthalle. According to the description, it illustrates how the art of that time repeatedly explored the boundaries between fantasy and reality. A perspective that will certainly do us good in our very unsettled times. In the afternoon I meet my artist colleague Akexander Deubl in his studio in the “DomagkAteliers“to discuss the next and last station of our” Design.WalkArt “exhibition in Nuremberg next February. In the evening my favorite Italian will be on the program, the Bar Giornale. Since my neon “We are living in the future of yesterday” is in the garden, I am not only drawn here by the friendly staff and the fantastic grilled octopus.
Friday: Good mood with the Italian
The day starts with clearing my studio and goes in the afternoon with one – who would have thought? – Corona test continue. Then I’ll go to the exhibition “Close contact – stay in touch“in the Gasteig HP8. It seems to me to be particularly exciting because it shows positions by artists from Poland and Germany who, with the help of material, overcome spatial distances that were created by the lockdown-related border closings to neighboring countries. In the early stages Evening we go to “Eataly“in the Schrannenhalle and buy Italian joie de vivre for the weekend against the winter blues. Since I’ve been in Munich regularly, I’ve tried to shop here at least once a month. After that, I’m always fine.
Saturday: In the green laboratory
Raised beds, an experimental workshop, changing mystery objects and pop-up exhibitions can be found in the “Biotopia Lab” in the Botanical Garden.
(Photo: Robert Haas)
Test first. Then, armed with my notepad, I go to a small breakfast in the palm house in the Nymphenburg palace café. Having breakfast under palm trees may be a little unnecessary, but it’s fun and brings a lot of new ideas. Then I look at the neighboring “Biotopia Lab“in the Botanical Garden. A visit that I had planned for a long time, especially since I was able to stand together with the founder Michael John Gorman on the” TEDx Munich “stage at the end of 2019 and have since been enthusiastic about his idea of a new natural history museum we one Online guidance through “Artmuc 2021”, which can now also be visited virtually.
Sunday: Selected old masters
The old masters used to be nothing but contemporaries, weren’t they? At least that’s what Jan Kuck thinks.
(Photo: Robert Haas)
I try to sleep in again, which I usually don’t quite succeed. After the compulsory test, I meet Konrad Bernheimer in the Old Pinakothek and let him show me some selected old masters. At one of our first meetings he told me that the old masters used to be nothing but contemporaries. And then asked me if I had any idea how we could transfer it to the present. My half-serious answer was that this could only be done with the greatest possible disrespect. Since then we have tried to go to the Alte Pinakothek together on a regular basis. We don’t do it often, but each time it’s very special to me and it helps to understand art in general more intensely. In any case, a perfect end to a fairly intense week.
About the author: Jan Kuck, born 1978 in Hanover, lives and works in Berlin and Munich and is represented by the artist agency “Bernheimer Contemporary” with headquarters in Berlin. He initially studied law for several semesters and then completed a master’s degree in philosophy and history in order to develop a theoretically profound foundation as a conceptual artist. In his works, Kuck tries to pinpoint the joke, but also the tragedy of our society.
An important theme that runs through all of his work is the use of light, often in conjunction with words. He was the first artist to visit the Munich Siegestor during the MCBW 2020 art fair with his light installation “Design! No sign? “. His largest public installation to date is” The Burning River “. Jan Kuck is currently preparing various solo and group exhibitions at home and abroad.
(Editor’s note: The guest author opted for the spelling with gender asterisks. As this is a personal article, this was adopted contrary to the other SZ regulations.)