'Konkret Mehr Raum' / 'Concretely more space!' is an international group show curated by Julia Draganović, Elisabeth Lumme and Valerie Schwindt-Kleveman, in which artists were invited to develop a dialogue with the architecture and history of the Kunsthalle Osnabrueck, Felix-Nussbaum-Haus, the Museum of Cultural History and the city of Osnabrueck, Germany. A key point of departure for the exhibition is the work of artist Friedrich Vordemberge-Gildewart. French artist Baptiste Debombourg’s sculpture Distortion, a geometric aberration, installed within the Kunsthalle Osnabruck and constructed using MDF wood, plaster and paint, creates the illusion of a geometric distortion of the existing architecture. Debombourg produces a space within a space using the geometry of the architecture and juxtaposing it with the distorted image of itself; by playing one form against the other he creates both movement and tension, and a search for balance. Debombourg uses the architecture as an element of a painting, making the viewer's perception the subject of the work, and a new image is created. In Debombourg's work we find a direct link to Friedrich Vordemberge-Gildewart's abstract art, which was highly influenced by his training as a carpenter, interior designer and sculptor. In Vordemberge-Gildewart's paintings, we can see an apparent architectural inclination, while in Debombourg's work we witness a painterly one; he constructs the space in such a way to create a new image in the viewer's perception. Vordemberge-Gildewart's work was influenced by the Bauhaus, while Debombourg's practice is informed by heritage. Russian painter, typographer, architect and designer El Lissitzky's interest in the interior as artwork comes to mind, particularly his Abstract Cabinet, created combining architecture and painting into a unique spatial experience, where the viewer, just as in Debombourg's work, steps into the artwork and perception is used to direct movement and create a new image.
