DE

Die Arbeiten von Lennart Foppe (geboren 1991 in Lingen, lebt in Köln) bewegen sich im Spannungsfeld von Malerei und Installation. Ausgehend von einem Studium der Illustration und Fine Arts an der Münster School of Design entwickelt Foppe ein ästhetisches Vokabular, das sich aus raumgreifenden Installationen, alltäglichen Materialien und gefundenen Objekten zusammensetzt. Seine Arbeiten erzeugen den Eindruck autonom agierender Apparaturen und erinnern zugleich an organische oder biologische Strukturen, die scheinbar eigenen Gesetzmäßigkeiten folgen.

Die Installationen lassen sich als künstliche Biosphären lesen, in denen verschiedene Formen, Oberflächen und Prozesse miteinander in Beziehung treten. Einzelne Elemente wirken wie Zellen oder Mikroorganismen, die sich teilen, verbinden oder in andere Zustände übergehen. In diesen räumlichen Konstellationen entstehen Situationen, die an grundlegende biologische Prozesse erinnern und zugleich technische sowie künstliche Aspekte sichtbar machen.

An dieser Schnittstelle von organischer Anmutung und konstruiertem System setzt Foppes Arbeit an. Durch eine formal reduzierte Darstellung biologischer Vorgänge löst er diese aus ihrem naturwissenschaftlichen Kontext und überführt sie in eine räumliche, erfahrbare Situation. So entstehen Installationen, die biologische Formen und Dynamiken evozieren und gleichzeitig deren Wahrnehmung hinterfragen.

Die verwendeten Materialien – darunter Schaumstoff, Polyester oder Latex – verweisen auf Oberflächen und Strukturen, die an zelluläre Prozesse erinnern. Bei genauerer Betrachtung treten jedoch auch die technischen und künstlichen Aspekte der Konstruktion hervor: Fragile Mikrokosmen, deren Funktionsweise bewusst offen bleibt und sich dem unmittelbaren Verständnis der Betrachtenden entzieht.

EN

The works of Lennart Foppe (born 1991 in Lingen, lives in Cologne) move between painting and installation. The aesthetic vocabulary of Foppe, who studied Illustration and Fine Arts at the Münster School of Design, includes spatial installations made from everyday materials and objects. These create the impression of independently operating apparatuses and evoke biological forms that seem to function according to their own rules.

Foppe’s biologically evocative installations resemble biospheres in which each individual cell phase is subject to processual time intervals. Different bacterial stages attempt to divide or become active in other ways. Other organisms try to mate and become part of a larger cellular cycle. It is at this lively interface of organic activity that his work begins, thereby enabling an unobstructed view of actual human existence: a snapshot of biological surfaces and primordial forms, complemented by a multitude of technical references.

Through a formally reduced representation of biological processes in his works, Foppe removes them from their original scientific context and thus enables a critical mode of viewing them. As a consequence, the installations “alternative endeavors of the unknown” and “a gathering breaks” attempt to evoke biological forms by transferring temporally biological-scientific moments into spatial situations and thus making them perceptible. The objects, which consist of synthetic materials such as foam, polyester, or latex, refer to biological surfaces that occur in various intercellular processes. Upon closer observation, the human-technical aspects of their construction become visible: spontaneously placed microcosms whose exact function appears rather abstract and therefore remains opaque to the viewer.

»With a perceptive feeling towards materials, Lennart Foppe creates an interaction between the synthetic and the organic. His sculptures are an ensemble of contradicting shapes, textures and materials that engage with each other. He plays with their color, sometimes revealing the true characteristics of materials and sometimes hiding them, carefully choosing what he shows and doesn’t show. While some surfaces show shapes, others show prints, as if an object has just disappeared or a process has ended. Open structures show layers, suggesting an ongoing life underneath the surface.

The works visualize an invisible world of biological processes that are of tremendous importance for human life. They remind of drawings that we know from biology books; schematic representations made to explain biological processes that we cannot see with our eyes and would otherwise not understand. The drawings translate this intangible matter into a material language that we are more familiar with. They serve to understand what would otherwise be elusive but are simultaneously far from reality.

The material language Foppe uses, however, is ambiguous. The organic shapes, referring to biological processes and matter, are a great contrast to the synthetic materials, such as foam, silicone and plastics, in which they are carved, shaped and casted. They are known from industrial objects and are almost unrecognizable in another context. All having different properties that are very particular, they need to be properly understood to be of any use. Although the contrast between subject and matter creates tension, the required knowledge to process these materials equals the complexity of the biological elements they represent.

The combination of material and biological elements creates interesting narratives. Looking at the associative forms in Foppe’s work makes us wonder if we are facing a representation or interpretation of an invisible reality. But perhaps we are fooled by our desire to decipher and understand what we see, and the work does not explain to us anything at all.«

Daphne Kramer, 2022