Denkzeit 2020   I   Cultural Foundation of the Free State of Saxony   I   1 October – 30 November 2020

 

In 2020, the Cultural Foundation of the Free State of Saxony funded Saxon artists and cultural workers with two-month scholarships under the title Thinking Time (Denkzeit). The program encouraged the artists to adhere to artistic practice and to further develop individual approaches in art even in times of crisis.

 

 

A number of drawings and paintings were created during this period. Precise shapes, clean lines, dim light and dark tones are some of the main characteristics of these works.

 

The decision to avoid colours in addition to being technical was subconscious as well. The beginning of the corona pandemic made a sudden and deep cut and disrupted the whole course of our lives and the way we develop our thoughts and feelings and plan for the future. Restrictions on freedom of movement, uncertainty accompanied by the situation at the local and global level, a large amount of information we have received during the year caused great confusion in thoughts and feelings, and affected our further planning of life and future. This situation required to concentrate intensively, to eliminate false from true news, to compare different theories about both the disease and plans for the future, to follow the news on the international and the local levels in order to know what to do and how to function (new measures, limited mobility), to take care of our health as well as our loved ones. All this has led to situations where most of our everyday lives have unconsciously turned into a constant cramp.

 

Thanks to the fact that artists have a faster and greater power to articulate their thoughts and feelings, it is natural that the works themselves, as their product, were created in a completely different form, hitherto unknown to me. In this way, the works I have created with the support of this scholarship serve as a reflection of this new situation.