With Ada Frände, Blalla W. Hallmann, Julia Heyward, James T. Hong, Udo Lefin, Rachel Reupke, Bernard Szajner, and Camilla Wills.

Opening on Friday, 10 May, from 7pm
11 May – 28 July 2024

It is light is a two-part exhibition realised between Bonner Kunstverein and Haus Mödrath – Räume für Kunst.

Curated by Fatima Hellberg 

Speaking with Dr Eva Zeltner, the custodian and carer of Blalla W. Hallmann’s estate, we reflected on the inner necessity and energy of this body of work. At times, she also cared for Blalla: the intensity was occasionally difficult to reconcile or contain with the demands of what it means to function, to be functional. Each painting holds everything and loops back on itself – a circular trap, a circular joke. He is an important anchor in this show: the will and desperation of this prolific total work, collapsing into life, into art and vice versa. It is unhinged history painting – too much – and, as all effective history painting, a science-fiction of the present.

As a way of introduction, Zeltner shared her first memory: the light of a bunker opening. The light is blinding. The memory has been told many times, its original borders fussy. “We are responsible for the child but we don’t know how it feels about us. Half the story is missing.”

Reflecting on it, she thinks this is why she might have connected with Blalla’s work in the first place, that sense of light, a life force, an intensity, and a certain stubborn belief in the crack. This is a belief, or hope, that sometimes shines through from beneath what is shown.

With special thanks to Andreas Hölscher. With much gratitude to Dr Eva Zeltner and Patrick Ebensperger.