Jan Dibbets
28.06. – 02.08.2009

For the first time, the Kunstverein Bremerhaven is presenting photographic works by Jan Dibbets in the Kunsthalle. The artist, who was born in Weert, Netherlands in 1941, is not an unknown. He had an exhibition in the Kabinett für Aktuelle Kunst in Bremerhaven as early as 1973. Following on from that presentation, works from the late 1980s and 2004 will now be on display in the Kunsthalle.

Jan Dibbets, who is close to land art and conceptual art, deals with the problem of perception and sensory illusion. He often uses photography to document perspective distortions and illusions, thereby raising questions about the perception of reality. The art association is presenting works from the series “Perspective Collection” and “Windows”, which are exemplary of this approach.

With the “Perspective Collection” group of works in 2004, Jan Dibbets continued a series from the late 1960s on the subject of perspective correction, in which he drew a trapezoid shape in the sand and photographed it in such a way that it appeared as a square in the photo. In the new series, he stages works by fellow artists such as Carl Andre, Donald Judd, Sol Lewitt and Robert Mangold and complements them with taut threads. The effect in the photo is a perspective distortion that causes uncertainty in the viewer.

These works are complemented by works from the “Windows” series. The photographs show window openings in cathedrals and secular buildings which, photographed in perspective, are distorted into elliptical and rhombus-shaped elements. Taken from the inside out, they allow a view of the empty sky. By painting over the wall surfaces, the architecture is abstracted and delocalized. Two light sources can be found in the picture: the natural light of the exhibition room reflected on the colored skin and the light coming through the window in the photo.

Jan Dibbet’s works amaze and astonish the viewer, who inevitably asks himself the question: what is fiction, what is reality? Tricky and playful, yet sober in aesthetics, the artist poses a central question in photography.

Curated by Jürgen Wesseler.