Darren Almond: Nocturne

Born in 1971, Darren Almond is undoubtedly one of England's most outstanding contemporary artists

This began with his participation in the legendary Sensation exhibition in 1997, the launch of the Young British Artists, led to his inclusion in the pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2003 and his nomination for the Turner Prize in 2005. Those who were fortunate enough to see the sensitive and focussed exhibition at the Villa Merkel in Esslingen in summer 2011 can therefore say they were lucky. Large-format Nachtstücke (2004-2010) lend their title to the publication, as they did to the exhibition with Nocturne, and show landscapes photographed under a full moon with long exposures, which in their European variants evoke the landscapes of the Romantics and in their Asian motifs classical Japanese and Chinese landscape painting. The lack of shadows in these photographs is visible evidence of a time that seems frozen, whose totalised light does not illuminate the scenery, but lies on the open surfaces like an emanation of the landscape, a fleeting substance. These photographs thus occupy a place at a peculiar intersection of painting and photography as well as perception and imagination. Where the photographic works allow time to become the measure of their perfect creation, the artist formulates the experience of time in the enormous video work Sometimes Still (2010) as an endless repetition of gruelling and long-lasting retreats. Darren Almond was allowed to follow a novice monk from the Buddhist Tendai school on a night-time long-distance run of 30 kilometres through a wooded area along the holy mountain of Hiei with his camera, an ascetic, both physical and spiritual exercise of the utmost rigour, which the novice has to repeat 1000 times over seven years. He has to stop again and again at precisely designated points and say prayers, which he ends by clapping twice. The special feature of this publication in cassette form is the individual realisation of the individual works, sometimes as a fanfold, sometimes as a simple booklet. In this way, all the exhibited photographs are adequately reproduced and the film in particular is given a publication form that can be understood as a reflection of the artist's experiences.

Exhibition:
Villa Merkel, Municipal Galleries of the City of Esslingen, 29/5 - 21/8/2011