›Speculations_Simulations‹ 20/11/2020—30/04/2021

• Gentli Korini

Frankfurt 20/11/2020—30/04/2021

The video of the exhibition on the Lachenman Art Youtube channel can be found here .

In its 50th exhibition, Lachenmann Art is showing the surreal-constructivist, digitally conceived oil paintings of the Albanian artist Genti Korini. In the exhibition ›Speculations / Simulations‹, current works are shown as well as some earlier works that shed light on his artistic development over the last five years and make his interdisciplinary and multi-systemic image concept visible.

Genti Korini's painted sculptural objects of shapes and lines in space are entirely abstract, yet reveal their architectural origins. Geometric surfaces, structural elements and three-dimensional vectors are joined together in vertical constellations to form coherent objects. However, these structures defy what is actually possible in their structure and statics in an idiosyncratic way and float detached in space. At first glance they appear unstable, as if they could collapse at any moment. But then the inner tension becomes noticeable, and their centered balance naturally holds them in place.

The individual components of the objects are mostly geometric shapes such as rectangles, diamonds and ellipses, which are translated into three-dimensional space and then tilted, laid, hung on one another or pushed into one another. Basic physical bodies such as cylinders and pyramids validate this new spatiality of the actually two-dimensional geometries. Even lines are given a third dimension and thus become poles or scaffolding. Shadows, color gradients and horizons open up spaces in the depth of the image, which in their reduced color appearance suggest virtual, computer-generated scenographies, evoke cyberspace, and appear like projections or backlighting. The technical, artificial-looking tint of the room reinforces the clear colors of the objects in the foreground. Some also seem to be illuminated by invisible light sources outside the boundaries of the image, which is shown in sharply contoured shadows and corresponding spots of light. The color and materiality of the object elements also have something technical about them. Semi-transparent and opaque, neon-colored and metallic, polychrome and monochrome surfaces reflect the light and direct the gaze, always keeping it in motion along the constructed lines.

The conceptual starting point for Genti Korini is the eclectic post-communist architecture of his hometown of Tirana. There, the seemingly endless stylistic possibilities of the new creative design scope are explored with a great deal of individualistic motivation, which regularly produces very unusual results. This architecture explores and stretches the boundaries of the imaginable. The special visual character of its surroundings as a visible sign of systemic and cultural change is the source of a diverse vocabulary of colors and shapes. It is a rich source of components and materials that the artist digitally abstracts on the computer and incorporates into his own image constructions. On the basis of the objective calculations of the computer, he then creates the medium to large-format oil paintings, which he develops even more in his subjective style compared to the digital sketches. The painted objects are technically calculated and could therefore theoretically be spatially realizable, but in real space they elude practical realization due to physical conditions such as gravity, mass and weight.

The title of the exhibition, ›Speculations / Simulations‹, is an indicator of the purely theoretical physicality of the objects and the space in which they are located: they speculate about space, they simulate architecture. Both speculation and simulation are theoretical, pre-practical processes that are still open to results, but work within a given framework and with existing elements. Genti Korini's artistic concept is based on the three successive levels of architecture, computer and painting, which he seamlessly combines to playfully explore the infinite possibilities of postmodernism and the present. In his abstract constructions, he splits a multifaceted cityscape into many individual parts, reassembles them digitally and finally constructs them anew in painted form. These surreal architectural objects are both a commentary and a homage.

Genti Korini was born in 1979 in Tirana, Albania, where he lives and works today. He completed the first years of his art studies in the Romanian city of Cluj, known for its art academy and active artistic community, before returning to Tirana to complete his master's degree. After solo exhibitions in Albania, Romania, Denmark, Great Britain and the USA, this is Genti Korini's first in Germany. His work is already represented in a number of private and public collections. — Kristina von Bülow

Installation views: Photo Credits Eric Tschernow