02. Cornelia Konrads

Cornelia Konrads creates permanent or temporary site-specific installations. Whatever the materials used (wood, stone or brick for example) - usually gathered on-site - the structures seem to dissolve and fall apart before our very eyes. This is the case for The Gate, a mind-boggling installation set up in 2004 in Fontainebleau Forest. The stones seem to hang, weightless, in mid-air as they crumble away from the existing stonework of a doorway worn down with age. The effect stops you in your tracks, catching you completely by surprise. In 2007, Konrads conjured up a slender and astonishing installation in a forest in Osnabrück, Germany (Skulpturenlandschaft), made from branches and wire. In 2001, "Le Vent Des Forêts" (Lorraine), an open-air contemporary art centre, housed one of her sculptures: Rising fall… Now no more than a memory, this piece at one time showcased an "endless" display of swirling twigs dancing in the air ... Cornelia Konrads' silent exhibits monopolise your attention and shake your sense of sureness. The past few years have seen her dot ever more of these transitional, challenging spaces around the world - creating intermediate moments of instability.

“I like this idea of showing that there is something invisible to be found in the visible. I like to awaken the joy of thinking about possibilities, about what might be. […] What I'm most interested in is order and chaos. The visible and invisible. The material and immaterial. And I don't see them as contradictions. They're like poles that are in everything. I like moments of amazement and irritation. On the whole when we look, we don't see. We wander in a sort of monologue with ourselves. This irritation and amazement shake us out of this mental drowsiness.” Cornelia Konrads

Cornelia Konrads creates permanent and temporary site-specific installations. With materials, branches and twigs she collects on-site, Cornelia has designed this Passage, which leads us towards mysterious and poetic destinations.

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES

Cornelia KONRADS
GERMANY