Singing to the Saints on the ceiling

From their terminal in Pforzheim, the curators of Ornamenta depart into the villages and forestry surroundings of the Nordschwarzwald. Driving passed houses, churches and historic sites that unlike Pforzheim still have a strong nostalgic layout. Little brutalism or high-rise to be found there. During a try out event, the curators show a site-specific work of visual artist Özgür Kar (b. 1992, TR) in dialogue with the architecture of the Liebfrauenkirche Lienzingen. By doing so the Ornamenta team confronts the communities of Maulbronn and Mühlacker to actualise their heritage by opening up their spaces to contemporary artists and designers. What new life can grow from these frozen and romantic legacies? Coming from film as well as drawing and graphic design, Kar’s recent work concentrates on black-and-white animations. He sketches out male figures squeezed into the confined frames of giant flat screens. Whispering monologues of nonsense, tragedy, homoeroticism, and pulp, these characters summon contemporary tales poised between libido and longing. The Instagram-like tiles of saints on the church’s ceiling are counterbalanced by the artist’s animated character on the floor of the monument from 1482. A four screen-sized sculpture sings good night to its ancestors above. For Ornamenta’s try out gathering in November, the largest installation so far of the work “Good Night” by the artist is installed and in doing so sheds new light on the location. What dialogues might other monuments in the region be hiding, complimenting their cultural heritage? About artist Özgür Kar (b. 1992, Ankara, Turkey) Özgür Kar is a visual artist joining the Ornamenta community for their November try out event in the Liebfrauenkriche in Lienzingen, Mühlacker. This year his works are also presented in a solo exhibition at Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris and Emalin Gallery in London. Photo: Ornamenta November 2021 try out event “Das Instagram der Gotik / Singing to the saints on the ceiling”, Karolina Sobel.