With Pink Floyd’s legendary album “The Dark Side of the Moon” as its namesake, the tune is set and it’s loud, it’s rock’n’roll. Not a simple projection of aspects of pop-cultural onto art, but a sincere investigation into the relation of art and music. Never a bland translation of certain concepts, but more of a metaphysical reflection, meditation on what moves our innermost self while experiencing a work of art, or a piece of music. It’s all about melodies and motifs, improvisation and instinct: the poly-rhythmic pulses of the dark side of the moon are in direct interaction with each work, in color, composition, and formal structure alike.
The line-up is exciting indeed. André Butzer’s antithetical monumental new N-paintings, Michael Sailstorfer’s installative investigations into the absurd, and Ralf Ziervogel’s meticulous compositions create an exciting mix with Bernhard Buhmann’s post-apocalyptical version of Pink Floyd’s own Pompeii. Olaf Breuning’s stranger-than-fiction photographs, James Clar’s topographical investigations of the other side, and Phillip Mueller’s cathartic expressionist wild style.
The exhibition incorporates the very abstract idea of music influencing art since antiquity, but at the same time, there is the pure physical joy of cranking up whatever comes through the airwaves to be heard. Conceptual white-noise aesthetics meet the pure psychedelic joy of defying gravity. This exhibition reflects these tendencies in German and Austrian art of recent years. “Die dunkle Seite des Mondes” will let your ears ring.
