Audio-Visual Imagination by Günther Reger and Wolf Nkole Helzle
The large canvas, painted with bold swathes of colour, almost resembles a stage set. After a few minutes, the lights in the room dim and moving lines gradually become visible on the surfaces, occasionally taking the form of recognisable figures. After a few more minutes, black light is activated and the projected images take over the surfaces. Then the lights slowly come back on, the coloured image gradually reappears, and the projections fade away. Reger adds another layer to the overall work through his music, composed specifically for this project. Duration of a performance comprising nine cycles: approximately 45 minutes.
Günther Reger paints the five-by-four-metre canvas using, among other things, luminous pigments, giving the work a three-dimensional, stage-set effect. Wolf Nkole Helzle projects his one-minute video clips directly onto Reger’s canvases; these clips reflect everyday life as experienced in a variety of ways.
“With this large-scale installation, we combine painting and media art in a contemplative way.”
In Günther Reger’s artistic works, one can see that he pursues his own distinct objectives within the broader context of artistic development. His studio spaces in Küpfendorf serve many purposes at once: a music and lighting studio, a colour laboratory and a stage for visual installations. Some of his works are subject to change, incorporating the processual progression that becomes tangible in the colour of the image – the basis is formed by modern luminous pigments, rarely used in painting, which are altered by artificial and natural light in a darkroom according to a precisely fixed schedule. Light is a constitutive prerequisite for colour and its transformation, for the pictorial process, which possesses intrinsic value.
The media artist Wolf Nkole Helzle works primarily with photography, video, installations and performances. He is interested in the relationship between the individual and the whole. His work is characterised by layers. From the very beginning, his practice has also involved collaboration with artists from other genres – notably visual music – exploring the question: “What oscillates between the different forms of art when they occur simultaneously?”
Having already collaborated on a number of projects over the past few years, the two friends get together in 2025 to discuss whether, and if so what, they might have to say at this point in time. These conversations give rise to a desire to create a joint work on the theme of ‘appearing and disappearing’.
“The concepts of time and space become relative in experience. The search for ‘what lies behind things’, the inexpressible, the inevitable, comes to the fore.”
Günther Reger: “A deeply moving, defining experience happened to me here during the dress rehearsal. Time and again, I pursue my longing to disappear into the painted picture and into installations, and to encounter the unknown. You disappear and yet you are still there. That is exactly what happens with the wonderful projections onto my painting by Wolf Helzle. As the light shifts, we are drawn into the spaces, into the zones of light, into the theatricality of the painted picture. Everything comes and goes.”
The performers need the following for the performance:
• A room that can be darkened, with a ceiling height of at least four metres
• Videobeamer
• sound system
We bring with us:
• Canvas
• Light modulator, halogen and UV light
• Video calculator
Contact:
Günther Reger: guenther.reger@n-log.de
Wolf Nkole Helzle: mail@helzle.com