The poetic title Dein Schatten liebt dich / Ton ombre t'aime (Your shadow loves you), by German artist Felix Kultau, resonates with the Romantic art movement that is so dear to Kultau, just as our own shadow remains irremediably attached to our skin.
In his installations and creations, the artist brings together a form of anxiety in pastel colors with popular cultural references: lockers typical of the imaginary universe of American films and TV series, used here as supports, stand alongside more tragic or nostalgic symbols. As with the idea of Romanticism, death is never far away, and discreetly indicates its presence in the background: the presence of a skull in the artist's canvases and the teeth of a skeleton remind us of this. In the history of art, Romanticism is synonymous with a break with the world of reason, and in his approach, Felix Kultau readily confesses to preferring aesthetics to meaning, almost always placing form before substance.
And yet, as a viewer, there seem to be meanings to be found in transformation, mutation and the beauty of reuse. Felix Kultau plays on the very definitions we ascribe to objects, and enjoys hijacking them to the point of making them blossom differently, perhaps where we least expect them. When Kultau takes protein cans and turns them into a new light source, he transforms one energy into another. What was once used for muscles is now used for light, to shine in a different way.
In each of the artist's creations, in each of his installations, there is an invitation to the public to conceive its own way of seeing the objects it identifies and believes it knows. He creates a kind of mental geography of memories, references and everyday objects - from our streets, our habits, our aspirations - the better to speak of aesthetics, metamorphosis and form. From the famous reworked Berlin streetlamps to illuminated signs that reveal familiar shapes, Felix Kultau remains a lover of the image, of the sensation it creates and of reminiscence. Memory, both personal and collective, takes precedence over long speeches.
Felix Kultau (*1984, DE) is a german artist living and working in Berlin. He studied in Städelschule in Frankfurt am Main in the classes of Amy Sillman and Monika Baer and got his masterdegree with Monika Baer in 2015.