FUGE

Paper casting

Vernissage 25. May 2022

Ausstellungsdauer 25. May to 24. July 2022

Exhibition in the Church of the Name of Jesus
25 May - 24 July 2022

The opening of the exhibition will take place on Wednesday
25 May 2022 at 7:30 pm in the Namen-Jesu-Kirche,
Bonngasse 8 in 53111 Bonn.

Welcome: Jenny Geißler, gallery owner, and Oliver Heister,
Member of the Board of the Namen-Jesu-Kirche Foundation
Opening speech: Dr. Michael Krajewski, art historian, critic and curator
Musical arrangement: Amelie Held, organist
Music pieces: Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750):
1st Fugue in G minor BWV 578
2nd fugue D minor BWV 565
Conclusion: Bernd Bentler, gallery owner

A documentation will be published to accompany the exhibition.
The artist will be present.

Fugue! André Schweers came up with this ambiguous title for his exhibition in the Namen-Jesu-Kirche, where we are now guests for the third time. What is a fugue? How many fugues are there? Which one is or are meant?
Of course, the first thing that comes to mind is the musical fugue. One thinks of Johann Sebastian Bach, who composed so many fugues. And of course the Bach fugue fits into a baroque, sacred space like that of the Namen Jesu Church. The form of the fugue seems like a musical conversation in which three or more people discuss one or two musical themes.
Outside the music, there is, interestingly enough, the shadow gap, whose existence is not constructively justified, but whose existence has purely optical and aesthetic reasons. The shadow gap separates light and dark, it forms a frame of shadows, it enhances the optical depth of a work of art and sometimes it frames a work of art without actually being a frame. Depending on the artwork, it helps the picture, makes it vivid and enhances the effect.
But fugue has so many other meanings. There is the joint as an interstice, the intended joint in construction and elsewhere, to balance tensions and prevent cracks. What a beautiful metaphor for the art of André Schweers, which with its positive content is able to prevent cracks in the tensions of modern society.
All this is fugue and can be fugue. And so much more. After all, this exhibition also takes place in an in-between space, which is what Fuge actually means. The very concept of the artist to use the interiors of the eight confessionals as a kind of showcase for his artworks brings both the artworks and the confessionals into a new space of meaning. The confessionals lose their original meaning and function, and thus acquire a new reality through the artworks. "Nothing distracts the perception through different information and the gaze concentrates and condenses on the "enclosed knowledge" at the centre, which shines here in the artworks of André Schweers. "* To this "enclosed knowledge", to this "knowledge of humanity", to what we as human beings can and, perhaps, also must know, belongs first and foremost the basic trust in life, to know that life is worthwhile.
With this knowledge, we might look differently at the gaps, at the spaces in between, in which we find ourselves socially and globally. There are so many of them. Just two of the current ones can be mentioned here: The global climate crisis and the war in Ukraine.
With the knowledge of climate change and the implementation of all necessary steps to mitigate it, we find ourselves in a gap, in an in-between space. We know that we cannot continue to do business and live like this, but we have not yet found a conclusive solution to avert the crisis, a new, adequate way of life and economic order that is accepted by the majority. We find ourselves in an in-between space.
The war in Ukraine has broken the old consensus that there should never be another war in the centre of Europe. A new peace order, whatever it will look like, is not yet in sight. Whether things will ever be as they once were is questionable. Until that day comes, we will live through an interim period.
Primal trust is characterised by the fact that, on the one hand, one does not know what the future will look like (because no one can), but on the other hand, one is convinced that there is a good solution for everything. Equipped with this knowledge, one will adopt a completely different attitude towards solving the problems of the future and thus towards overcoming the gap, the fugue, than without this knowledge. It will be an attitude of hope. And it is precisely this attitude of hope, which can be read out of André Schweer's artworks, that we so urgently need.

*Quotation: Dr. Gabriele Uelsberg, former director of the LVR Museum, Bonn, in "Die Bibliotheca conservata" (Chapter House St. Julien, Tours (F), April 2003)