The exposition ended recently. Still, here is Roland Blum‘s work.
The place
Originally a hospice of the Order of St. John, built in 1218, the little church in the middle of Feldkirch’s historic centre is now, after a chequered history, home to an amazing exhibition space for contemporary art.
The antiques of the past range from the Romanesque structure walls to the Baroque frescoes and the New Gothic high altar.
It is simple to get close to this place, as the church bases on a popular square in the middle of the city. However, many people do not look behind the façade, where one of the most amazing artistic imagine the region is concealed. Anybody who steps over the limit of the church from the hustle and bustle of Marktgasse is immediately mesmerized by the silence, the light and the measurements of the area. Slowly, one’s gaze wanders to the fragments of earlier times. Like an open book, they tell the story of many centuries. What makes this room unique are the normal components of a church, however especially the floor, which is open after archaeological excavations. This mix of abundance and barrenness is an unique endeavor for modern art. Anybody who gets involved is inevitably on the trail of the location.
The Work
Classic
compositions of the Namib Desert from a bird’s eye view. The Liechtenstein photographer Roland Blum focuses his cam lens on the structures and forms of the interesting landscape in southwest Africa.
Roland Blum provides eight large-format photographs (4m x 3m) in the church interior and one theme in the sacristy of the Johanniterkirche. The image compositions of the oldest desert worldwide were drawn from a helicopter.
2000 km long and 150 km broad, the Namib Desert covers a location of 270,000 km2. For almost five years, Roland Blum has been drawn again and again to the strange desert landscape of the remote northern Namib and its coast, where the desert is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean and where the cold Benguela Current satisfies the land. Practically every morning, dense fog settles over the desert here, triggered by the fast cooling of the sea air in the evening. Roland Blum flies directly along the edge of the fog with his telephoto lens: “The longer I spend with this landscape, the more I experience its variety. Small animals that endure due to the wetness of the fog or dunes that look like snow one day and like zebras the next. Numerous semi-precious stones and crystals reflect in the sunlight and give the sand an unique colour palette. Depending upon the light situation and angle, it looks various each time. A barren mountain can unexpectedly glow purple. The colours of a dune can alter from milky yellow to the kitschiest pink.”
Before Roland Blum begins taking photos, he takes a lot of time to build up a relationship with the landscape. Normally this happens with long strolls, if possible specifically in the evening. Throughout the day, he studies the light, which plays an elementary function in his work. His ageless photographic works are really similar to painting. Roland Blum might perhaps best be described as a painter of light, and painting with light is photography in the truest sense of the word.
The artist Roland Blum(born 1966
in Grabs in Liechtenstein )lives and works in Schaan. He studied music at the Jazz School and the Conservatory in Lucerne. His primary works are abstract aerial pictures. They have actually won rewards at different international competitors and can presently be seen at the Venice Biennale in the Namibian pavilion.