Bound­less worlds: The ex­hi­bi­ti­on “The Outer In­ner World” by Ni­co­lai Ho­walt at the Mu­se­um Kunst der West­küs­te

The Mu­se­um Kunst der West­küs­te is curr­ent­ly hos­ting a fa­sci­na­ting ar­tis­tic jour­ney th­rough na­tu­re, sci­ence and cos­mic di­men­si­ons. In “The Outer In­ner World”, Da­nish ar­tist Ni­co­lai Ho­walt ex­plo­res the as­to­nis­hing par­al­lels bet­ween the struc­tures of the mi­cro­c­osm and macro­c­osm. For ex­am­p­le, di­gi­tal image in­for­ma­ti­on from Mars ap­pears just as fa­mi­li­ar as phy­si­cal pho­to­graphs wi­th a fa­mi­li­ar ef­fect as pho­to­grams of fun­gal spo­res that reve­al them­sel­ves as ga­lac­tic for­ma­ti­ons. In the ex­hi­bi­ti­on se­ries such as A Jour­ney: The Ne­ar Fu­ture, F.U.N.G.I. and Old Tjik­ko, sca­les and per­spec­ti­ves be­co­me blur­red: The view in­to the uni­ver­se, in­to the pe­tri dish or on­to the ol­dest li­ving tree on earth is al­ways an in­ter­play of pro­xi­mi­ty and di­stance, de­pen­dence and in­ter­wo­ven­ness.

In Light Break, Ho­walt fo­cu­ses on the in­vi­si­ble in a par­ti­cu­lar­ly im­pres­si­ve way, using his­to­ri­cal len­ses and the in­ter­play of chan­ce and in­ten­ti­on to bring light — the cen­tral me­di­um of pho­to­gra­phy — to life in a new way. Over­all, the works re­flect his deep con­nec­tion to re­se­arch and an ex­pe­ri­men­tal, in­qui­si­ti­ve ap­proach. The ex­hi­bi­ti­on sees its­elf as a bridge bet­ween ar­tis­tic aes­the­tics and sci­en­ti­fic know­ledge and in­vi­tes vi­si­tors to ask their own exis­ten­ti­al ques­ti­ons about the ro­le of hu­mans in a com­plex world. For tho­se in­te­res­ted, the­re are gui­ded tours and a bi­lin­gu­al ex­hi­bi­ti­on ca­ta­lo­gue to deepen the ex­pe­ri­ence.