This is why an artist fills the Bremerhaven art gallery with water from Vesera

Stand Date: 28. November 2021,

Author:
Joshka Schmidt and Patrick Florenkowski

Image: Radio Bremen | joshka shmito

To this day, the Kunsthalle der Seestadt continues to show a spectacular installation. For this purpose, Bremerhaven scholarship holder Aurel Dahlgrun poured thousands of liters of water into the hall.

With this proverb wish yourself good luck on the shore – always an arm’s width of water under the keel. An artist from Bremerhaven now interprets it in a slightly different way than the width of an arm. For an exhibition, with the help of the fire brigade, he floods the art gallery without much ado. The name of the show starting this Sunday is “Tide”.

How the Waters of Weser got to the Art Gallery

The fire brigade carried about 5,000 liters of water to the art gallery. Freshly pumped from the Weser estuary and towed with a fire truck. And then: the water’s on! Water travels through a hose and pump to the first floor of the brick building.

We fill the hall with water. It sounds cruel. We will be able to enter the hall further, but there will be a large area with water. A kind of mirror on the floor, which allows the space of the Kunsthal to be presented in a completely different way.

Klaus Becke, Curator, Kunstverein Bremerhaven

Two men face each other. — Curator Klaus Becke (left) and concept artist Aurel Dahlgrun.

Image: Radio Bremen | joshka shmito

While concept artist Aurel Dahlgrun and her team wait upstairs in the hall, Torben Garms and Michael Erhold from the Bremerhaven Fire Brigade stand below and control the water supply. An extraordinary task for firefighters. But they are happy to do the 31-year-old a favor. “Culture and research are so important, we all benefit from them,” Garmes says. “And that’s different from rescuing people.”

Metropolitan Artist with Bremerhaven Grant

Born in Berlin, Dahlgrun grew up in Sweden, lived in Brazil and studied art in Düsseldorf. He has been working in Seastead for a few months. He received a one-year, so-called Bremerhaven grant from the Kunstverein. “Tide” is their first on-site exhibition. As for the floods of Kunsthal, he was driven by the tides.

Slight uplift and tidal flow: When I was taking drone photos, I noticed that when the water pushes away, formations are produced in the sand that are absolutely thrilling.

Aurel Dahlgrun, artist

He is hoping the same for his water installation. If it evaporates over time, patterns should develop here as well. “When water recedes, crystalline structures and abstract shapes begin to appear that are unpredictable.” Depending on what time the visitor arrives, he or she will see a different picture.

Water is Dahlgrun’s big topic. This is why he not only flooded the hall for his exhibition, but also displayed various photographs and works on paper in a room – all with reference to Weser. “It was important to me to work with content that I could find here on the site.” “Tide” can be seen at the Art Gallery in Bremerhaven until mid-January. The water is then pumped back into the vasor.