To launch 鈥檚 2016 season, the Kent gallery presents a show by the Danish artist Joachim Koester. With around 20 works ranging from film installation, photography and sound, this comprehensive display will be Turner Contemporary鈥檚 largest film exhibition to date and offers a unique opportunity to see JMW Turner鈥檚 watercolours juxtaposed with Koester鈥檚 films.
Two new black and white 16mm films 鈥 one of which is directly inspired by JMW Turner 鈥 will be showcased alongside a selection of works produced by Koester over the past 10 years, many of which will be shown in the UK for the first time.聽 Koester鈥檚 atmospheric and often soundless films track the boundaries of the unknown, where fact and fiction cross over. His works depict an interest in journeys both physical and psychological, and the reconstruction of alternative narratives and forgotten or rumoured stories.
Central to the exhibition is Koester鈥檚 new film The Other Side of the Sky (2015), created especially for the exhibition. The piece is inspired by the artist鈥檚 research into Turner, who claimed to have been bound to the mast of a ship at sea in order to closely observe the atmospheric effect of storms. Koester鈥檚 experiential film examines Turner鈥檚 subsequent depictions of storms via the analogy of psychedelic 鈥渢rips鈥. This theme of psychedelic states recurs in other works such as My Frontier is an Endless Wall of Points (after the Mescaline Drawings of Henri Michaux) (2007) which explores the experience of a trance-like state that is beyond language.
The Other Side of the Sky will be shown within a specially built structure reminiscent of an abandoned shack, offering glimpses of a group of nine late works on paper by Turner hung alongside it. Juxtaposing the contemporary and historical, viewers are given a unique perspective on Turner and a chance to view the nineteenth century painter鈥檚 later, watery landscapes in a new way.
Displayed for the first time in the UK is Koester鈥檚 first audio work, The Department of Abandoned Futures (2008/2015). Made in collaboration with Stefan A. Pedersen, the soundtrack of white noise and hypnotic voiceover guides the listener through an imaginary city to a vast basement space.
Joachim Koester, The Other Side of the Sky,聽until聽8 May, Turner Contemporary, Rendezvous, Margate, Kent, CT9 1HG.
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Credits
1.聽Joachim Koester, The Other Side of the Sky, 2015, 16mm film, 4 min. 00 sec., film still. Courtesy the artist and Galleri Nicolai Wallner, Denmark.
