LIVING GRAVITY

January 31 to March 13, 2020

With the exhibitions LIVING GRAVITY a new exhibition area of Kunstforum der TU Darmstadt will be presented for the first time. Works by sculptors Manfred Emmenegger-Kanzler (* 1953), CW Loth (* 1954) and Christiane Messerschmidt (* 1963) made of steel, clay, wood, and stone will be shown on around 450 square meters in one of the former machine halls in the heart of the campus Stadtmitte.

Paradoxically, Manfred Emmenegger-Kanzler's sober and factual works — which are made of steel and clay — seem to have a certain liveliness: be it sculptures made of strictly lined up or stacked squares, fragile-looking constructions made of stacked bricks, which stand up solely through their own balance. They look like they have just been built, threatening to lose their balance at all times, and seem to defy gravity.

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In CW Loth's works made of wood — objects made of displaceable bodies, changeable, allowing perspectives — the moveable takes on a central function. Loth's sculptures are fascinating both because of their flexibility and participative quality, as well as because of the handcrafted creation process: a special sawing technique enables the sculptures with their axes, joints, and movable individual elements to be created as a whole without ever being detached from the originally grown log.

The material plays an elementary role in Christiane Messerschmidt's work. “The shape is in the stone”, says the artist. The sculptor achieves the visualization of a form hidden in the material by searching for old traces of the living in the millennia-old stone: surfaces with crystalline structures, veins, and grains testify to past, mighty natural forces.

Visitors can expect a varied course through an impressive exhibition location. More than 40 sculptures are shown, ranging from small-format works to large-scale objects. Gravity as a necessary constraint and omnipresent part of the sculpture is visible in a variety of ways in Manfred Emmenegger-Kanzler, CW Loth, and Christiane Messerschmidt.

The works on display can be purchased.

Fr., 2020/01/31, 7 p.m.

Opening at the exhibition hall in the Halle 4 of the TU Darmstadt (S1|09), Magdalenstraße 6 (Campus Stadtmitte between ULB and Otto-Berndt-Halle). Welcoming by Dr. Manfred Efinger (Chancellor of TU Darmstadt), Prof. Dr. Christoph Hubig (Institute of Philosophy, TU Darmstadt) und Taymas Matboo, M.A. (project management). Afterwards aperitif and snack. The artists Manfred Emmenegger-Kanzler, CW-Loth and Christiane Messerschmidt are present.

Th., 2020/02/27, 6 p.m.

Public guided tour through the exhibition in the Halle 4 of the TU Darmstadt with Taymas Matboo (project management).

Fr., 2020/03/06, 6 p.m.

ARTIST TALK with the sculptors Manfred Emmenegger-Kanzler, CW Loth, and Christiane Messerschmidt in conversation with Taymas Matboo. The artists will talk about their work, their techniques, and illustrate this with the help of exhibits, drawings, and models.