Exhibiting in Portugal for the first time is Peter Kogler, an Austrian artist, born in 1959, whose works aim to reflect the nature and impact of modern media in our society.
As we enter the gallery of Museu Colecção Berardo, in Lisbon, where the Peter Kogler exhibition is, on the ceiling there is a large drawing of a labyrinth filled with stripes depicting a web as a symbol of a media-networked society. Throughout the exhibition, we notice that the artist tries to reflect the link between nature and technology through the use of figures like a labyrinth, a rat, an ant and a brain. With his paintings at the frontier of decorative abstraction, Peter Kogler seeks to transform our perception of space.
Peter Kogler uses acrylic canvas, varied murals and silk screen printing and, curiously, he uses computer animations with double video projection and digitalised motifs to illustrate the mediatisation of societies, their increasing use of technology and its possible potentials and pitfalls.
One thing that we also find also curious is that works don’t have a name and their description doesn’t tell us what the painting is but of what materials it is made. In my personal opinion, this is just because the artist wanted people to make their own judgement and “give wings” to their imagination and try to figure out on their own what it really is and what he is trying to transmit with those images.
Some of his works are drawn on the walls of the galleries. Due to this, each Peter Kogler exhibition is conceived depending on the museum and on the shape of the gallery. In Lisbon, Kogler conceived of a network of pipes attached to the highly designed space of the Museu Colecção Berardo galleries.
I really recommend this exhibition for lovers of abstract art. It will be in the CCB till 31st May and don’t be afraid of entering the dark rooms that you will find! They only have some video projections of ants and rats! To see more, go the artist’s page at http://www.kogler.net .
Cátia Costa
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