Goldstücke – Light art projects in Gelsenkirchen
From 2 to 6 October 2024, the light artworks ‘Goldstücke’ will shine in the city centre of Gelsenkirchen-Buer. The event is organised by the City of Gelsenkirchen’s Department of Culture and has been taking place regularly since 2019. It presents works of art that use light-based media and materials as well as digital photography and film. The artistic director is the internationally renowned curator Bettina Pelz, who has specialised in light in the visual arts.
Light projections by Katharina Berndt in Goldbergpark
In 2024, Katharina Berndt was commissioned to design a work for the Goldstücke light art projects in Gelsenkirchen. The freelance illustrator and graphic designer lives in Bremen and has been working in particular with the medium of light since 2010. Berndt’s artistic approach is characterised by freehand drawings in which the accidental plays an important role. In her poetic, narrative drawings, she creates metaphorical figures with elements from mythology and the world of animals and plants.
A total of twelve PHOS 85s pole mount projection systems with various projection lenses are used for the site-specific installation ‘Mirror, Mirror’ (2024) for Goldbergpark. The park’s trees serve both as a projection surface and as an integral part of the artwork.
The work addresses the omnipresent self-staging of people in modern media, for example by taking and sharing selfies. The boundaries between reality and digital staging are scrutinised and viewers are held up to a mirror in which they can experience the increasing fusion of personal identity with images conveyed by media. Through the use of distorted and fragmented projections, the division of the self in a world characterised by social networks and digital platforms is made visually tangible.
Artwork design: Katharina Berndt
Artistic direction: Bettina Pelz
Organiser: Stadt Gelsenkirchen, Referat Kultur
