Josef Zekoff: Paradise

The lost paradises

The facelessness of the protagonists in Josef Zekoff's paintings is one of their most outstanding features. Whether they are labyrinths of symbols - he also paints ornaments and maps - or drawn stick figures, the space in between that these pictures occupy calls for self-reflection, for which the viewer must, however, summon up courage. Or as Florian Waldvogel writes in his introductory text: "Do the protagonists of his pictures seek an encounter with something that goes beyond the world of objects and fixed sizes? Is it, as Martin Heidegger writes in "What is Metaphysics?", about an encounter with the 'nothing' in 'fear'? Does the confrontation with the 'nothing' in Zekoff's pictures refer to our fear in the face of the original meaninglessness of the world, to the fact that it is existence that ascribes meanings to things?" According to Heidegger, the worldliness of the world lies in this emptiness, and Zekoff's figures, unlike the viewers, feel no fear of nothingness. However, as in the Jacobin tragedy, fear needs the awareness of loss in order to survive. According to Marcel Proust, concludes Florian Waldvogel, the true paradises are those that have been lost.

Exhibition:
CFA Contemporary Fine Arts Berlin, 1/7 - 5/8/2023