A 60-metre-long knitted scarf, a room full of photovoltaic systems and a colourful postcard stand next door: what at first glance appears disjointed is the result of an artistic exploration of the theme "Lost in Transition - A Life in Transition". In the still unrenovated outbuilding of the Landesmuseum Natur und Mensch, 33 art students are presenting their works on two floors, which can be seen until 13 November.
Our lives are characterised by constant change. Be it growing up, social crises and megatrends or environmental changes. Students from the Institute of Art and Visual Culture at the Landesmuseum Natur und Mensch are currently showing how diverse such processes of change, also known as transitions, can be with their works. They are the result of a two-semester project as part of the seminar "Sculpture and Photography in Artistic Practice", led by lecturers Anna Holzhauer and Franziska von den Driesch. In addition to sculptural and photographic works, the exhibition also includes site-specific video and media installations as well as experimental analogue and digital techniques.
"We were free to decide how we wanted to design our works," says Lara Louise von Hälfen. She opted for a photo installation in combination with audio recordings in which she explores death and memory. To this end, she interviewed two young women who had each lost a parent. "It was important to me that my project radiates something hopeful," she says. The photos show memories of the protagonists' life together with their parents, which Lara Louise uses to express the transition between loss and connection.
Other fellow students decided to incorporate more of their own personal experiences into their works. Leon Branko Čolić, for example, recreates images of his deceased grandfather in a video installation. "I was often told that I resembled him. I wanted to pursue that," he says. Tracing the locations and realising them also had a self-reflective aspect for Leon: "I asked myself whether we might also be similar in character," he says.
Visualising processes of change
Where change takes place, something is sometimes lost. Two installations dedicated to this aspect await visitors in the stairwell of the two-storey exhibition. With "Lost in Transition - Lost in Transcription", Lina Antonia Helms points to the loss of language that can go hand in hand with change. She has translated the exhibition title into various languages and stuck them on the steps. With each step and each translation, the meaning of the individual words changes as well as the language. In her work "Lost and Found", fellow student Zoe-Melisande Schulte shows everyday and bizarre found objects that she photographed in Oldenburg's lost property offices.
Other works link change with generational processes. Together with women from her family, Smilla Berkefeld has knitted a 60 metre long scarf that now adorns the bare space of the museum building. Other installations take a critical look at the use of wood as a resource. Viola Keilen, for example, uses oil prints to depict how trees that have grown over decades are cut down in a short space of time.
The exhibition "Lost in Transition - Artistic Approaches to a Life in Transition" can be seen at the Landesmuseum Natur und Mensch Oldenburg (Damm 46) until 13 November on Thursdays from 18:00 to 21:00 and on Saturdays and Sundays from 13:00 to 17:00. On Thursday evenings, the participating artists will be available for presentations and discussions. Admission is free.
