Lars Koepsel
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Lars Koepsel (* 1964 in Bingen am Rhein) is a German visual artist.
Biography[edit]
After finishing the gymnasium, Koepsel studied art history with Hans-Jürgen Imiela at the University of Mainz from 1983 until 1985. In 1985 he began an apprenticeship as a gilder and church painter in Allershausen, Bavaria, which he completed in Berchtesgaden three years later in 1988. During this time he assisted in the restoration of St. Leonhard in Nußdorf am Inn and of St. Andreas in Berchtesgaden.
Koepsel became self-employed as an artist in 1991, however was not successful at first, working numerous jobs as a waiter, marketer, parquet layer and painter to get by. In 1998 he burned almost his entire work in order to free himself artistically. From 1998 to 2001 Koepsel studied philosophy at the LMU Munich. In 2013 he founded the Apartment of Art, a non-profit gallery in Munich, which he has been curating ever since.
Koepsel is married and has a son.
Art[edit]
Koepsel uses several different mediums in his art such as laid paper, old maps, old globes and jigsaw puzzles from his childhood, which he letters. The majority of Koepsel's work is characterised by the use of his handwriting. This type of text-based art consists of transcriptions of entire works of literature such as the Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri, Theaetetus by Plato, We Refugees by Hannah Arendt, In Praise of Folly by Erasmus of Rotterdam and The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx & Friedrich Engels.
Spending 2-3 months every year in Taiwan from 1995 to 2002, Koepsel studied Chinese calligraphy, which deeply influenced the use of handwriting in his own works.
For his short film Game over, Koepsel collaborated with German-Polish composer Roman Pawollek.[1]
Contextualising Quotes[edit]
In his 2003 essay Bücher abschreiben...Bücher werden Bilder (Transcribing Books... Books become Pictures), Heinz Schütz addresses in particular the use of handwriting within the artistic process:
"Koepsel's appropriation of texts takes place through multiple layers of writing and ultimately leads to an exercise in emptiness. Importantly, Koepsel doesn't just add the layers on top of one another, but rotates the sheet by ninety degrees whenever he starts a new layer, resulting in an illegible tangle of text. At first, the text remains readable, but the more layers are added (sometimes up to twelve), the more absurd the process of writing itself becomes as the sheet that served as a base is blackened more and more and the letters begin to fade: the writer may write, yet he can no longer read it. The text is physically complete by means of the writing process, but with increasing density of the layers of text, it eludes any kind of visual control. The writing process therefore renders itself a self purpose. (...) Through the superposition of different layers of text, the transcribed books turn into a construct of stratifications, and become their own palimpsests. This, together with the rotation of the artwork, results in a transition from text to image."[2]
In his essay Das Unsichtbare in Bewegung (The Invisible in Motion), Damian Lentini, curator with the Haus der Kunst in Munich, attempts a primarily art-historical classification of Koepsel's work:
"[...] In some ways, one can draw parallels between Koepsel's captivating transcriptions of the Divine Comedy and Siah Armajanis extensive use of sufi poetry of the 13th and 14th century in his early works. Both processes render the texts almost entirely illegible, even to those that can read their language.
The works of both artists share a complex form of piety. This religiosity is already apparent in the work titles, but is more so embodied in the realisation of the pieces themselves. The repeated, meditative and even ascetic practices of devotion itself are reflected here. Although the calligraphic character remains a major feature of all these works, their loose, sketch-like execution on paper and radically altered backdrops elevate the devotion to the visual impression above the readability. (...) Since Koepsel's works are not derived from word and textuality, but are in fact poetry in themselves, one could be tempted to label them as anti-modernist. This, in combination with an abstract approach of drawing and painting, however, separates his art from most established norms of modernist abstraction – the lack of any kind of substantial narrative. This assumption also ignores the fact that the work as a whole embodies an ideal modernist form, as it defies calligraphic tradition and reproduces texts in almost incidental handwriting. The work therefore restores the literary [sic], diminishes the decorative, and emphasises the spiritual, making it altogether highly provocative."[3]
Important exhibitions[edit]
Koepsel's works have been on exhibition in Germany, (German Society for Christian Art, Munich,[3][4] New Gallery Dachau, Villa Stuck, Munich,[5] Kulturspeicher Würzburg[6]), Austria (Vienna Künstlerhaus), Norway (Bergen Art Museum, together with Kurt Johanneson), Australia (QCA Gallery Brisbane), China and Taiwan (Dimension Endowment of Art Foundation, Taipei[7]).
- 1999: lai (COME), Kunst im öffentlichen Raum, DEoA-Foundation; Taipei, Taiwan; Catalogue[7]"財團法人中華民國帝門藝術教育基金會". Foundation Website. Retrieved 2021-03-27.</ref>
- 2001: Zen-Camera, curated by Sophie McIntyre, Queensland College of Art Gallery; Brisbane, Australia
- 2003: Neue Galerie Dachau, Catalogue; Dachau, Germany
- 2004: Game over, Vienna Künstlerhaus; Vienna, Austria[1]
- 2010: iAart at IT Park, Collaboration with Vernon Ah Kee; Taipei, Taiwan[8]
- 2014: Exercises of Emptiness; VT Artsalon; Taipei, Taiwan[9]
- 2018: Am Anfang war das Wort Am; Galerie Renate Bender; Munich, Germany
- 2020: Wieder + Wieder, curated by Benita Meißner, DG Kunstraum Deutsche Gesellschaft für christliche Kunst, Catalogue; Munich, Germany[3][4]
- 2021: Shelter, Apartment of Art, Munich[10][11][12]
- 2022: You can take; DG Kunstraum Deutsche Gesellschaft für christliche Kunst, Munich
- 2022: participation in CAMP notes on education at the invitation of the project No Measurements, Documenta fifteen.
Collections[edit]
- Bavarian State Library, Munich
- Collection of the Aareal Bank, Wiesbaden
- Lyrik Kabinett Collection Haeusgen, Munich
- Private collections in Germany, Taiwan, Australia
Web Links[edit]
- Official website
Referencess[edit]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 "GAME OVER - Kurzfilm von Lars Koepsel (D)". db.musicaustria.at. Retrieved 2021-03-27.
- ↑ Schütz, Heinz, Dachauer Galerien und Museen, ed., Bücher abschreiben, ISBN 3-930941-43-0
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Lentini, Damian, Deutsche Gesellschaft für christliche Kunst, ed., Das Unsichtbare in Bewegung, ISBN 978-3-932322-54-9
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 "Wieder und Wieder. Ritual, Kontemplation, Obsession', DG – Deutsche Gesellschaft für christliche Kunst". Retrieved 2021-03-27.
- ↑ "Museum Villa Stuck: LIMBO LICHTSPIELE". Retrieved 2021-03-27.
- ↑ Lauter, Marlene (2018), Museum im Kulturspeicher Würzburg, ed., "Labyrinth Konkret...Mit Nebenwegen", Labyrinth, Würzburg, pp. 23, 74–75, ISBN 978-3-928155-65-6
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Huang, Hai-Ming; Sun, Li-Chuan; Volkwein, Peter (May 1999), Dimension Endowment of Art, ed., Lars Koepsel, Lai, Ta-An Park / Taipei / Taiwan, p. 42, ISBN 957-8899-16-5CS1 maint: Multiple names: authors list (link)
- ↑ "伊通公園 ITPARK". Gallery Website. Retrieved 2021-03-27.
- ↑ "Künstler Lars Koepsel". Radio Taiwan Int. (in 中文). Retrieved 2021-03-27.
- ↑ Vogel, Evelyn, Süddeutsche Zeitung. "Allein mit der Kunst" (in Deutsch). Retrieved 2021-03-27.CS1 maint: Multiple names: authors list (link)
- ↑ Hamel, Christine (2021-01-04). "Ausstellung "Shelter": Ein Schutzraum für die Kunst". BR Nachrichten Kultur (in Deutsch). Retrieved 2021-03-27.
- ↑ Erika Waecker-Babnik (2021-02-09). "Lars Koepsels Shelter, »Apartment der Kunst« in München". Münchner Feuilleton (in Deutsch). Retrieved 2021-03-27.
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