Luzia Simons – On Stage
The works of Luzia Simons (b. 1953 in Brazil) testify to her close relationship with nature, with flowers, plants, and trees in their infinite diversity. The splendor of the equatorial forests and the lush vegetation of her home country are as much a part of the artist’s pictorial world as European vegetation.
The artist works in a variety of media, including painting, watercolor, tapestry, ceramics, installation, video, and photography. However, she achieved international fame with her so-called scanograms, in particular the Stockage series, which constitutes a large part of the works exhibited at BiT. Since the 1990s, Luzia Simons has been creating irritatingly beautiful flower arrangements using a special scanner instead of a camera. The fantastic, illusionistic spatial images are created by the artist draping the flowers on the scanner glass. The scanner scans the surfaces and then creates a digital image that can be read and visualized with the computer. The artist then processes these high-precision image measurements like an exposed photograph as a LightJet print behind Plexiglas. With this technique developed by her, Simons creates pictorial spaces that cannot be produced either photographically or painterly.
Stockage 166 – 1/4 + 1AP Scannoprogramm (2008), Lightjet Print diasec 160 x 123 cm, unframed, © Luzia Simons, VG Bild Kunst Bonn
Stockage 85 – 4/6 + 1AP Scannoprogramm (2010), Lightjet Print diasec 100 x 100 cm, unframed, © Luzia Simons, VG Bild Kunst Bonn
Stockage 219 FineArtPrint, © Luzia Simons, VG Bild Kunst Bonn
In their opulence, the layered cut flowers of the Stockage series take on an almost overwhelming presence, a symbol of beauty and transience. “The sublime as an art historical motif in the observation of nature elevates the seemingly trivial subject of the floral still life to extraordinary relevance. By staging the blossoms against a velvety, dark background, the flowers take on a sculptural quality and convey the tense aura between extreme closeness and great distance […]. The intensity of the colors, the delicacy of the blossoms, the opulence of the forms, all testify to the fullness of life, overlaid in equal measure by morbidity […]. The viewer catches a last glimpse of the blossoms at the moment of their greatest splendor and thus just before their incipient decay,” explains Saskia Dams. [1]
[1] Saskia Dams, in: Luzia Simons. Naturgeschichten, exh. cat. Museum im Kleihues-Bau, Kornwestheim, 2019, p. 5 [translated].
The monumental banners from the Stockage series extend over two floors
Despite their lushness, the flowers in the monumental prints from the Stockage series, which Simons had produced especially for the exhibition hall at BiT, also show the first signs of wilting. The fabric banners, which extend over two floors, resemble curtains on a stage on which the artist's imaginary gardens unfold.
In her floral still lifes, Luzia Simons refers to the still lifes of the Dutch Golden Age and to the special symbolism of the tulip. In the seventeenth century, this flower with cult status served not only as a representation of vanitas, but also as the epitome of flourishing trade and later economic ruin—caused by the crash of the Amsterdam Tulip Exchange, where it was traded as an object of speculation. Although considered typically Dutch, the tulip originated in the steppes of Kazakhstan. From there it reached the court of the Ottoman Empire and became the symbol of Constantinople. For Luzia Simons, it is therefore also a metaphor for migration and cultural transfer.
All of the artist’s works undoubtedly radiate an irrepressible sensuality. The fact that nature consists not only of beautiful, ephemeral flowers, but is also of existential importance as a biotope, as a living space, is also shown in the series of drawings of various types of weeds, which can be seen on the upper floor of the BiT as large-format, wall-filling prints. Over the course of many years, Luzia Simons has collected various leaf forms from many countries and processed them into delicate, black-and-white works on paper. They bear witness to the value of “worthless” nature and remind us that all forms of nature are essential to the survival of humans and animals on our planet.
Stephan Krings, Head of Global Marketing and Communications; Luzia Simons; Bettina Alex, Expert Arts at KWS Group; Dr. Bettina Ruhrberg, Director of the Mönchehaus Museum
Impressions of the vernissage
"I left Brazil at the age of 23 and have lived in Europe ever since. The question of personal identity as a sociocultural construction and my own status as a foreigner are the starting points of my artistic thinking. In doing so, I developed my own capture technique, the "scanogram" – a point of view without central angles or focus, as is customary in photography." – Luzia Simons
The artist
Luzia Simons was born in Quixadá, Brazil, in 1953 and lives in Berlin.
She initially studied history until 1981 and fine arts at the Sorbonne in Paris from 1984 to 1986. She then moved her main residence to Stuttgart and then to Berlin.
Her works have been exhibited in Europe, the USA, China and Brazil.
Luzia Simons
Selected images are printed on Hahnemühle Hemp paper.
Headerpicture:
Stockage 160 (Detail) 2015 Scannogram, Lightjet Print Diasec 193,5 x 137 cm, © Luzia Simons, VG Bild-Kunst Bonn
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