PRESS RELEASE

The title “Listen With Your Heart” by the summer studio in the Kulturbahnhof Eller, deals with the interdependence of man and nature. A balance that must not be shaken in order not to endanger existence. In fact, however, the person takes possession according to his nature and thus ultimately destroys the harmony of the common lines of life. Every day we receive scientific data, satellite images, and climate diagrams that show us climate change and its devastating consequences for humans and nature. Art, on the other hand, can operate completely free of this scientific objectivity and morality. There are other ways of approaching life in a seemingly dwindling world. The artist creates a very unique framework for sensual access and aesthetic representation. Her work does not show a dark apocalypse. Her works are poetic and shaped by a romanticizing utopia of a better world. In the exhibition, she works with plant-based materials. She uses nori seaweed and rice paper for her shapes, picture surfaces, and room installations. The dry algae leaves are dissolved in water and scooped up with a sieve to be brought into a new shape. Fragile images and vulnerable structures emerge and unfold the space. Yaël adds to these works the plants from the surrounding area, which she found while walking around the cultural station. It thus links the interior with the outside space and gives the plants a new room to grow. She often adds sound or video to her room installations. In the old Eller train station, she lets music penetrate from the outside through the joints and cracks of the building and lets the visitor hear it through headphones in her room installation. It’s the song «Listen With Your Heart» from the movie Pocahontas. The myth of history is the supposedly peaceful settlement of North America by the Europeans. The main character is the daughter of an Indian chief who mediates between the Indians and the English. «You have to see things with the eye in your heart, not with your eye in your head.» (John Fire Lame Deer, Sioux-Lakota) Yaël Kempf’s work aims to sharpen our perception of fragility. It lets us feel and see what has been lost.

Mara Sporn