"To be physically in one place, anchored in the moment and yet mentally far away - this feeling is a recurrent theme in my minimalist work. In a reduced formal language, it allows us to feel the longing to understand what lies beyond the horizon, while at the same time posing the question:
Isn't the longing much more beautiful than the answer?”
Karolin Schwab
In her site-specific installations and sculptures, Karolin Schwab (born 1987 in Stralsund) explores different perceptions of landscape and space as well as the relationship of the viewer to his or her ever-changing surroundings. Her work embraces the gentle processes and movement in everything, while at the same time trying to find a moment of stillness.
The minimalist shapes and lines that she deliberately contextualises form a kind of frame or bridge that creates a moment of connection between man and nature, between the internal and external landscape. In relation to the circles that recur in many of the installations, one could also speak of lenses or magnifying glasses that encourage the viewer to look into the distance in order to find a part of their inner self. Looking, perceiving and feeling become the subject, and the subject becomes people and their behaviour.
Man's relationship with nature is an important expression of culture and in many ways synonymous with his relationship with the 'sacred/universal'. It is a theme that can be traced back to the dawn of humanity and is still highly relevant today, especially in our digital age where we have to question what makes us human.
Whether working outdoors or indoors, her aim is to make the viewer aware of what is happening around them, be it in the form of light, wind, material, space, change of colour or perspective, and that it is their story that completes the work. The narrative behind the work is one of change, changing with each new environment and person she encounters.
Karolin Schwab studied art in Greifswald, London and Berlin with Ai Weiwei. Her work can be found in renowned public collections and museums. In 2023 she won the CeU Loves Art Award and a Neustart Kultur grant from the Stiftung Kunstfonds Bonn. She was also awarded the Young Art Award for Visual Arts in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania in 2022. She was selected for the summer exhibition "Mouvement" at Galerie Melbye-Konan, organised in cooperation with the French Consulate General and the Institut français (Hamburg). At the end of the year, her works will also be exhibited in a duo exhibition at Galerie Melbye-Konan.