›Radical Ritual‹ 04/09/2020—07/11/2020

• Romans + Romans

Frankfurt 04/09/2020—07/11/2020

The video about the exhibition can be found on the Lachenman Art YouTube channel here .

The exhibition ›Radical Ritual‹ presents the unique visual world of the Berlin-based artist duo Römer+Römer in a vibrant array of colors. Their mostly large-format paintings depict manga fans engrossed in cosplay in Beijing, fantastically adorned samba dancers in Rio de Janeiro, spectacular light installations, and fantastical creatures from the Fusion Festival and Burning Man. Their works capture snapshots of the cultural characteristics, distinctive festivals, and rituals of the places they travel to together. Under the title ›Radical Ritual‹, these events merge into a space where people can immerse themselves in another world and experience it radically and freely. This was also the title of the Burning Man Festival, which they attended in 2017 and whose motifs form the majority of the exhibition. Many festivalgoers arrive in self-built vehicles to join the caravan or to give free rein to their creativity.

One of these cars, made from converted bicycles and embedded in a variety of light installations, can be admired in the 6-meter-long diptych "Moon Landing Biker." The interplay of light from the numerous light strips and LED displays is uniquely combined with the painting technique of the artist duo Nina and Torsten Römer. The motif emerges from a density of tiny, juxtaposed dots of pure color, which, upon closer inspection, seems to dissolve into the structure of the individual spots. While Impressionists and Pointillists explored the possibilities of representing natural light in 19th-century plein air painting, here both natural light sources, such as fires, and artificial light are broken down into pixels. This creates an analogy between pixels and LEDs, reflecting the visuality of the digital.

Nina and Torsten Römer developed their style during a period of transition from analog to digital photography. Their motifs originate from digital photographs, which they then translate into paintings. This process of translation demonstrates how photography continually transforms painting.

Their interest in the transformation and change of our time manifests itself in a variety of ways. Throughout their artistic careers, they have engaged intensively with social and political events, expressing their observations and thoughts not only through painting but also in numerous performances. Their shared interest emerged very early on, and they developed their first joint compositions while still students. They both studied at the Düsseldorf Art Academy and graduated together as a master student of AR Penck in 2003.