Robert Irwin, Jakob Kudsk Steensen, LAS Online
Light Art Space (LAS) is a non-profit art foundation that works across art, science and new technologies. Championing experimental projects and new exhibition formats, LAS is committed to commissioning and exhibiting engaging experiences that are accessible to wider audiences both in Berlin and internationally. Conceived by Amira Gad, recently appointed Head of Programmes, together with LAS Director Dr Bettina Kames, the 2021 programme continues LAS’ mission to bring together groundbreaking interdisciplinary artists to create unique presentations which challenge perceptions of the present and stimulate new visions of the future. Since her appointment, Gad has been working closely with Kames on sharpening the institution’s mission and its programme, including the recently launched app, Judy Chicago’s new Augmented Reality artwork, Judy Chicago Rainbow AR.
Dr Bettina Kames, Director of LAS has said: "We are thrilled to announce Amira Gad’s appointment to LAS and our forthcoming artistic programme: and look forward to bringing these visionary artists to new audiences. With remarkable new commissions and site-specific installations, visitors will enjoy unique experiences in dialogue with two of Berlin’s most famous music and arts venues, Kraftwerk Berlin and Halle am Berghain. They highlight LAS’ commitment to breaking down boundaries within the arts to work more holistically and to raise the bar of exhibition presentations."
Amira Gad, Head of Programmes at LAS added: "In 2021, our programme kicks off with renowned artist Robert Irwin, celebrated as the forefather of the Light and Space movement. In the summer, for his first exhibition in Berlin, we will be transported into the animated world of Jakob Kudsk Steensen’s immersive installations which will transform the Halle am Berghain into a portal to a past world of wetlands and extinct species, revealing Berlin’s origins as a swamp. At LAS, we work with artists to highlight their experiments within artistic practices, revealing interdisciplinary and unique approaches."
Robert Irwin
April–May 2021, Kraftwerk Berlin
Curated by Amira Gad & Ruth Kißling
Light and Space (Kraftwerk Berlin) is a site-specific exhibition by pioneering American artist Robert Irwin at Kraftwerk Berlin. The installation will form part of Irwin’s Light and Space series, which the artist first began in 2007. Commissioned by LAS, this will be the largest artwork by Robert Irwin to be exhibited in Europe to date. Over his prolific, five-decade career, Irwin has become best known as the forefather of the Light and Space movement. Reflecting on the historical development of light art, the new LAS commission Light and Space (Kraftwerk Berlin) will transform Kraftwerk Berlin’s impressive architecture, featuring fluorescent tubes spread in abstract rhythmic patterns across both sides of a monumental wall. As well as its unique scale, this new piece will also see Irwin combine white light and blue-coloured fluorescent tubes for the first time.
Jakob Kudsk Steensen
July–September 2021, Halle am Berghain
Guest Curated by Emma Enderby (Chief Curator at The Shed, New York), assisted by Elisabeth Stumpf
Danish artist Jakob Kudsk Steensen (b. 1987, Denmark) will transform legendary venue Halle am Berghain with a new installation stimulating lost natural worlds and inviting visitors to experience the local landscape throughout time. Kudsk Steensen is known for his environmental storytelling, using animation, mixed reality and virtual reality to reimagine overlooked ecologies. For this new LAS commission, the artist reveals Berlin’s origin as a swamp, formed by a 10,000-year-old glacial valley. Each of the artist’s projects involves extensive fieldwork and, for this exhibition, Kudsk Steensen is conducting research in Germany’s wetlands to document their ecosystem. The resulting installation will create a portal between the relics of the Ice Age and today’s wetlands, enabling audiences to vividly see, hear and explore the otherwise unseen natural histories beneath their feet.
LAS Online is an ongoing digital programme began in December 2020, offering audiences an engaging introduction to cutting-edge artists’ digital and online works. The programme includes works by Jenna Sutela, Meriem Benanni, Nkisi and Omsk Social Club.
