KM
Art Cologne 2017

On the occasion of Art Cologne 2017, Berlin-based gallery KM presents a solo presentation with works by Simone Gilges (*1972).
The series of works that address the themes of landscape, idyll, the concept of nature, and threat. The booth displays landscape photography, sculptures and found objects that does not bring a certain place to mind, but instead creates an atmosphere of apocalyptic nature. Humans are absent in these pictures. Gilges expands the photographic process by adding chemicals to color the black-and-white photos. In some works she layers fabrics on photography which are painterly transformed into a part of the work. The landscape is transformed, attaining a surreal beauty that through the intensity of the colors simultaneously conveys something threatening. Gilges contrasts the depiction of nature with the geometrically cut-out matte form and the chemical treatment, thus opening up a new level of perception. The intensity highlights the beauty of the colors and objects, while at the same time emanating something artificial and eerie. The question they ultimately pose is: What are we actually looking at?

In Simone Gilges’ processed photos, mutation is at the fore, effected by both the transparent substances that add a new level to the pictures and the alteration of the surfaces. The artist concentrates on the atmosphere and the invisible factors inherent to the image.
Her photographs and the way they are expanded into the surrounding space by fabrics play with the potentials of transformation, transience, and transition. Gilges continues her engagement with the medium as a cultural carrier and creates amalgams out of different cultural contexts. She assembles transformed pictures of remote places to a new structure and arranges them to a newpictorial language.

Key words: Landscape photography, sculptures, chemical processes
Post-Apocalyptic nature, mutation, transformation, transience, and transition
Amalgams out of different cultural contexts.