7306 days with Liberté. Solo show, Kewenig Gallery, Berlin, Germany, 2022.
ROOM #10
OCTOBER 2022
KEWENIG
Thirty-five head sculptures made of wax rise above the house-high wall of the space between the gallery and the adjacent building, which KEWENIG occupies with its monthly changing exhibition programme ’12 Rooms’. The October edition shows works by Angelika Markul. It is a selection from a series of amorphous, portrait-like sculptures that the artist has been working on for several years and which one day will reach the number of 7306. They are arranged in the glow of a light bulb that swings freely in the room and bathes this gathering in a dim but moving light.
The themes in Markul’s sculptural works and installations as well as her video works revolve around questions of time, memory, becoming and decay as a cycle of life. In her earlier works, she has combined science with fiction, constructing myths through her narratives that touch on the fundamental questions of humanity. With the work on view here, she moves the beholder in a similar way, but for the first time she addresses a subject that concerns her very private, personal sphere.
The artist spent 7306 days with her partner before he passed away. Each of the sculptures is meant to remind of one of these days, of the everyday connection, the conversations, the exchange of thoughts and ideas. Thus, each sculpture in this series is similar to all the others, but at the same time individual and unique. The sculptures do not depict any facial features, rather they appear in an almost grotesque, mute presence.
They are facing the viewer. Even in the omission of any physiognomy of the heads and in the interaction of space and light, it is possible to suggest a reflection, a dialogue, an exchange, and in this way to convey a sense of silent, intimate conversation, about the fragility of life, thoughts, feelings and memories – under the constant pendulum of time.
Angelika Markul
7306 days with Liberté, 2022
35 sculptures of wax, installation, varying dimensions
© Lepkowski Studios Berlin, 2022.