Chris Hinze

Fragments of a path

25/04/—14/06/26

 

The solo exhibition of visual artist and musician Chris Hinze, born in Cottbus in 1969, is presented in two parts. While the new, site-specific, room-filling installation „Raum der Stille“ (Room of Silence) is on display in the exhibition hall „Maschinenhaus 1″ (Machine House 1), the presentation in “ Schalthaus 3″ (Switch House 3) is contrapuntal, offering an overview of paintings in various techniques and sculptures from different periods of his career in a more traditional museum setting.

 

Having initially established himself primarily as a musician and experimented in performance art in the late 1980s, Chris Hinze soon began to translate his exploration of archaic ways of life and their symbolic imagery, as well as mythological themes, into visual art. Recurring themes include the (spiritually connoted) relationship between humanity and nature, as well as the idea of various forms of transgression as an intellectual, transcendental, yet also physical and, above all, aesthetic possibility of overcoming (societal) constraints, conventions, and (self-)control mechanisms.

 

The exhibition hall Schalthaus 3, classically furnished with two- and three-dimensional works, offers insights into the development of the artist’s oeuvre and his specific approach to working with diverse materials and visual languages.

 

At the front of the exhibition space, visitors are greeted by a cast concrete figure, which, as a solitary piece, forms a bridge to the other part of the exhibition, the „Raum der Stille“ in Maschinenhaus 1. In Schalthaus 3, two-dimensional artworks now dominate the space: drawings, prints produced using various techniques, and paintings. Despite the diversity of pictorial concepts, techniques, materials, and motifs, questions concerning the representation of the human figure and the conditio humana—that is, the fundamental conditions of human existence and humanity—mark a central focus of Chris Hinze’s work. The figures of archaic warriors are of paramount importance in this context. The strength and power of these figures, however, do not lie in the traditional mechanisms of attack and defense, but rather in (self-)knowledge, reflection, concentration, and (inner) peace, as well as in exploring the boundaries and intersections between the individual and community(s). These attitudes find their counterparts in the visual languages, which move between schematic figuration and abstract, gestural pictorial elements.

 

A constant in Chris Hinze’s artistic practice is the profound integration and connection between the spheres of music and visual art. To this day, he is an active member of the legendary band Sandow, which, like hardly any other band founded in the GDR in the 1980s, stands for experimental, transdisciplinary artistic action in the social sphere.