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Batuz – A Picture Sees the Light of Day Bright – dark, light – shadow: Without these contrasting pairs no pictorial, no artistic presentation can arise. Bright-dark contrasts, light and darkness, day and night determine the visual perception, make possible or delimit this perception and thus set borderlines for those things from each other. That means: Bright and dark, light and shadow are instruments for defining, for demarcating the one from the other and place things in relation to each other. Without these contrasts we could not see anything – or at least not much. Thanks to these contrasts I got enlightened. The artist and world citizen Batuz has established the borderline for his life’s task. His work is defined by his motif of the border – and by what is situated on this side and on that side of a border, defined by the dividing line and entering into a complementary relationship to each other. Batuz himself speaks of the “interrelation of forms”, which he thematizes in a variety of ways. With the language of his art he places, by the dividing line, the here and its beyond in relation to each other and removes at the same time the dividing line by its complementary counter part: the engaging communication. A few years ago, in a border-crossing action in Saxonian Rothenburg at the German-Polish border river Neisse, Batuz has orchestrated as a live picture these “interrelations of forms” with a multitude of people from both sides of the Neisse river – in the middle of the river, which thus turned from a borderline to a place of bonding. And even if with this action, celebrating the Polish membership in the European Union, “swords” did not become “plowshares”, steel helmets of soldiers became, nevertheless, bearers of parts for a picture of peace, of overcoming borders and of commonality. The action happened in the past, but, expanding its reach, Batuz has created, as it were as a handshake of the world, a monumental picture. A picture which through various modes of illumination, through graded dosages of light and shadow appears to become again a live organism. Batuz has created this picture in Chemnitz. We were able to place at the disposal of the artist a hall of the now closed gas works Chemnitz to serve as “atelier” for the space-demanding and all customary picture dimensions transcending project. It is, however, a special pleasure for the Stadtwerke Chemnnitz, Ltd. to contribute that medium which is, as it were, a mass product of our enterprise, but under the direction of Batuz brings to life a piece of art, actually becomes an ingredient of the art work, defining in it spaces and spaciality and nevertheless moving effortlessly across borders: the light. And when light in the reality of today’s life, on the one hand, is perceived as a multiform, but nevertheless very ordinary and randomly available phenomenon, it does, on the other hand, refer all the same, via artistic direction, to its far greater dimension as an essential ingredient of creation. For creating his light-picture in Chemnitz thanks is due to Batuz. Contributing a modest part to it is an honor for our Company. Karl Gerhard Degreif Member, Board of Directors |
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