The Centre for International Light Art, Unna, opened in 2001 and was the first dedicated museum to the genre. In developing the concept for this institituion, Uwe Ruth envisaged the premises as “a continuously growing museum for artistic light-installations with an internationally important light collection – the first of its kind” (Anacker, 2012). The criteria for inclusion in the collection were that the works be by “the most renowned light artists, selected by strictly qualitative appraisal of their works” and following which permanent works would be installed that related to each of the rooms in the underground cellars, shaping them into individual works of art. Beyond the installations, and to ensure a “sustained involvement in light as a medium”, Ruth conceived of a space for temporary and changing exhibitions, actions and symposia. Since 1998 the collection has expanded with “the focus on the exemplary combination of light, room and bodily perception” strictly observed through each new commission. The concept of the collection therefore is connecting the experience of each light installation to the bodily experience of light (Anacker, 2012).
Twelve of the most internationally renowned artists have designed permanent installations for the underground rooms of this former brewery and are presented in the permanent collection exhibition: Mario Merz, Joseph Kosuth, James Turrell, Mischa Kuball, Christina Kubisch, Brigitte Kowanz, Johannes Dinnebier, Keith Sonnier, François Morellet, Christian Boltanski, Jan van Munster and Olafur Eliasson.
In James Turrell’s ‘Floater 99’, one of his so-called “Space Division Constructions”, he created a space in which visitors appear to float into shades of red and blue light, which make the borders of the room dissolve, described as “breathing in light, as if one could touch light itself”.
Fig. 48: Keith Sonnier ‘Tunnels of Tears’ Centre for International Light Art, Unna (2002) From The Essence of Light, Wienand Verlag
In a similar way to astronauts, visitors have to grope their way around, step by step.
With all their senses they are immersed into a light bath and experience how architectural realities dissolve to the point of disorientation. What seems at first to be a flat, dark violet picture on a pink wall, framed by a brightly lit border, turns out, when the visitor passes through, to be a colour room that one can enter and leave again. Uniquely, it is the only work in the collection that does not refer to the architecture of the specific location, but is created in a room within a room. In this situation without reference and time, ‘Floater 99’ takes up the role of the “Other”.
Describing his artistic motivation for the piece Turrell said:
Think of a dream, a lucid dream where you perceive colours, where light pervades the scenes, where light creates an aura around objects! In dreams we often
experience a quality of light that we do not perceive with open eyes. I want to experience in real life, with open eyes, what we see in our dreams with closed eyes (Turrell, 2012).
A light-sound tapestry constitutes the permanent remains of an original work by Christina Kubisch titled ‘Schlohweib und Rabenschwarz’ created between 1999 and 2001 for the Centre. Kubisch, a German installation artist and trained composer, chose the former fermenting cellar as the location for her piece, a room with four deep brick recesses. Resonating with their former function, these recesses were transformed by Kubisch into sound fields. She also installed a geometric constellation of loudspeakers on the black floor and illuminated them with black light so that they appeared to float. This installation attempts to recognise the original room and by means of an interplay of sound and light instensify the existing atmosphere whilst also creating new narrative.
Fig. 49: James Turrell ‘Floater 99’ (1999-2001) Centre for International Light Art Unna (2002) From The Essence of Light, Wienand Verlag
Visitors can hear the light rush of flowing water mutated by its alienated rhythm into an abstract world of sound, nurtured by the primeval noises of an unknown nature. The room is submerged in foggy, muted light. A meditative mood full of secrets surrounds them (Osbelt 2012, and Ruth, 2004).
Because of the maze-like character of the premises with its labyrinth of rooms, it is currently compulsory to use one of the guides for a tour, which takes around 90 minutes to complete the circuit. Through this engagement the spectator is enabled to form a comprehensive picture of the different manifestations and forms of this relatively young genre of light art. It is perhaps only when spontaneous visits are possible and individuals are able to explore the works of light art without being part of a group or guided tour that it will become possible to lose yourself in the meditative contemplation of works such as Rebecca Horn’s ‘Lotusschatten 2006’ or to have all your senses stimulated by Olafur Eliasson’s ‘Reflektierender’. “The live experience is key – its works of art can only be experienced in real-time – neither internet nor TV can convey the light effects, the smells, the multidimensional worlds of sound or the coolness of water drops” (Jaspers, 2012).
An important initiative developed by the Centre for International Light Art is the International Light Art Award which is a platform for emerging light artists who engage with key topics such as new technologies, energy usage and sustainability.
It responds to Unesco’s opinion that light is a “key cross-cutting discipline in the 21st century, and it is essential that its importance is fully appreciated. It is equally vital that the brightest young minds from all areas of the world continue to be attracted to careers in this field” (Unesco, 2015). Artists are invited to reflect on the ‘Future of Light Art’ and elaborate a concept for how this future could look, contributing to the discussion and development of light-art in an innovative and creative way. Artists working with light are often exposed to difficult conditions: light art installations need specific spaces that do justice to the works and to the effects the artists wish to achieve. High financial as well as technical requirements mean that often artists are unable to get beyond conceptualising their projects as models. Therefore, the award and accompanying exhibition, which takes place annually in Unna, engages with debates occurring at the nexus of art and science and when announcing the 2019 award on artconnect.com it proposed the following questions: “How does light influence how we see space? What effect does the simulation of light have on our communication, our sense of well-being, and ultimately our view of the world?”.
Fig. 50: Left: Rebecca Horn ‘Lotus Shadows’ (2006) Fig. 51: Right: Olafur Eliasson ‘The Reflecting Corridor’ (2002) Centre for International Light Art Unna (2002) From the Essence of Light Publication
2.3.2 ARCHIVES AND ARCHIVAL PRACTICE
The artist as collector, archivist, curator or documentarian has in recent years become a familiar figure. This instinct has often overlapped with the institutional commitment to preserve, with several artists being inspired by the museum’s encyclopedic example and vast storehouses of art. Others are driven by an urge to make sense of the deluge of images, objects and events that are a factor of our daily lives, in an attempt to gain control of the chaos. The computer, video camera and our many portable recording devices have played a role in this urge to document and many artworks and exhibitions have been made around the subject of the archive (Smith, 1998). From a survey of available literature on the subject it appears that the archives of many galleries do not receive serious scholarly attention, whereas major museums have been the focus of an interest in display history since the 1980s and this has resulted in a number of critical theory texts finding meaning in the mediation and reception of art. In The Archival Impulse (2004), art historian Hal Foster defines archival art as a genre that “make[s] historical information, often lost or displaced, physically present. To this end [archival artists] elaborate on the found image, object, and favor the installation format.” Foster infers that the internet represents an ideal form or “megarchive” that has normalised the collecting and compiling of information to the point where information itself can be viewed as a found object (Guasch, 2011).
The idea of the archive continues to be an undeniable force and organising structure in exhibitions today (Artspace Editions, 2014). Many curators have stimulated
discussion about archives by staging exhibitions that draw on the archival practices of artists today. Archive Fever: Uses of the Document in Contemporary Art, curated by Okwui Enwezor at the International Center of Photography, was described in the press as a “landmark show” which highlighted numerous examples of artists who employ archival documents in their work, “mixing eras and generations, meticulously splicing an imaginary whole from real archival parts” (Cotter, 2008).
Some examples of scholarly texts here include: Frances Spalding, The Tate: A History (London: Tate Gallery, 1998); Sam Hunter, The Museum of Modern Art, New York: The History and the Collection (New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1984); and Marcia Pointon, ed., Art Apart: Art Institutions and Ideology across England and North America (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1994). A small selection of archives / artist archival practices is examined following their role as creative catalysts for generating artworks and exhibitions. This research to identify the ways in which archives can stimulate artistic practice took place at the Nýló Archive in Reykjavik, and in discussion with a number of creative practitioners in Iceland and the UK. Included in this section are extracts from interview transcripts with two artists whose artworks involve the archiving of non-conventional materials / cataloguing of unimaginable things, namely Katie Paterson’s ‘The History of Darkness’ (2010-ongoing), Michael Light’s ‘Full Moon’ (1999) and ‘100 Suns’ (2003). Of relevance here too is the digital access offered by online platforms that can contribute to the experience and distribution of a collection or archive. Examining the digital archival approach initiated by Rhizome demonstrated the challenges of digital preservation and how to accommodate the digital archiving of web-based artworks.
It is clear that the digital archival approach opens up the potential for a virtual audience to engage in critical discourse around a collection or archive.