Carsten Costard
PAINTED BY LIGHT

AS PART OF THE 12. Darmstadt Photography Days

April 23 to July 16, 2023

As part of the 12. Darmstadt Photography Days, the Spanish Tower Sculpture Garden will be showing the exhibition »Carsten Costard PAINTED BY LIGHT« in spring 2023.

Painting with light is how Mainz-born photographer and Darmstadt resident Carsten Costard describes his photographs, which he took at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic in spring 2020 using his innovative flash technology. Inspired by the desire to be able to encounter art despite museums and exhibition venues being closed, the initially factual-looking photographs show selected sculptures and sculptures from Darmstadt's urban space, which were photographed using innovative flash technology.

Carsten Costard pursues his need for an encounter with art in times of crisis by using up to four flash units to emphasize the material composition and shape of the sculptures in the public space. At the same time, he reduces the sun as a natural light source. By spotlighting the sculptures, they themselves appear like paintings. The public space in which the sculptures stand is transformed into a museum space through the use of flashlight technology.

Around 20 photographs will be on display in the Spanish Tower Sculpture Garden between April 23 and July 16, 2023 in the exhibition Carsten Costard PAINTED BY LIGHT, including »Hundegruppe« (1963) by Ulla Scholl, »Grande Disco« (1974) by Arnaldo Pomodoro and »Der Aussteiger« (1980) by Eberhard Linke. The exhibition on the Rosenhöhe offers a special opportunity to engage with sculptures from the urban space, while the originals remain in their original locations.

About Carsten Costard

Carsten Costard was born in Mainz in 1965. During visits to his uncle, the film director Helmuth Costard, in Berlin in the early 1980s, he repeatedly immersed himself in the world of images. Over the years, this developed into his passion for photography.

After passing his master craftsman's examination, he founded his first studio in 1994. His clients include industrial companies such as Schott AG, Oerlikon Balzers and Krones AG as well as research institutes such as the Max Planck Institute, the Fraunhofer Institute and universities. His photographs became known to a wide audience with exhibitions on science photography at Bingen University in 2016 and 2021 and an exhibition at the Natural History Museum in Mainz in 2020.

With Carsten Costard PAINTED BY LIGHT, the Spanish Tower Sculpture Garden is presenting a photography exhibition for the first time, thus combining two artistic media: 20th century sculptures and contemporary photography. The exhibition will be shown as part of the 12th Darmstadt Days of Photography, which will be presented at various locations in the city from April 23 to May 7, 2023 and will be shown this year under the theme »TILT/SHIFT - Experiment as Normal State«. The exhibition on the edge of the Oberfeld also marks the start of the 2023 exhibition year of the Spanish Tower Sculpture Garden, which focuses on sculptures and sculptures in the Science City Darmstadt and from the municipal collection.

12. DaRMSTADT PHOTOGRAPHY DAYS

»TILT/SHIFT - Experiment as Normal State«

The simultaneous and global crises reveal to us a failure that has long been unimaginable, even in areas of our society that were previously thought to be safe. Although there is no claim to a normal state of the world, the feeling of security is dwindling for an ever-increasing number of people: Familiar ways of seeing things are disappearing, certainties are shifting.

The promise that everything will remain good, or will be good again, is currently disintegrating and can hardly be carried forward from the present into the future. Even people who previously thought they were safe in their living environment are increasingly feeling threatened in their everyday lives. Patterns of thought are being questioned and discussed - constructively by groups and individuals, but also polarizingly by fact-twisters. Old discourses on Eurocentric and postcolonial views of the world - on a large and small scale - are being continued.

Times of crisis not only mean uncertainty, but can - despite everything - also present opportunities. Potential, partly due to necessity, is being examined at all levels for scope, new ideas and further developments. Is the experiment of constantly having to reorient oneself now becoming the norm? How can photography capture the enormous changes? Which images enable us to better understand an insecure, diverse world in turbulent and complex change - and to keep an eye on the open outcome of the experiment?

Further information:
Website of the Darmstadt Photography Days