Bodo Korsig

Bodo Korsig (1962)

„Dynamic and precisely planned cutouts reproduce brain structures and the transmission of electrical impulses between synapses in an abstracted form, thus offering the viewer a comprehensive projection surface. Where the wall objects open up, the viewer's individual sensations and thoughts flow in and capture them” – Bodo Korsig.

Bodo Korsig’s main theme for over twenty years, has been the examination of the ways and conditions of thinking and feeling. Are we our brains? Do the chemicals released in them completely control our emotions and actions? Bodo Korsig is fascinated with love, which he calls a “superpower” that can make us lose all objectivity and commit crazy and often self-destructive acts. Love, along with mortality, memory, poetry, brain science, and the vexing question of what constitutes consciousness.
The formal language and technique of Bodo Korsig’s latest works from paper evolved from the artist’s steel sculptural objects. In these works, we see how Bodo Korsig likes to play with materiality, thus intriguing the viewer. The intense black colour of the paper surface impregnated with pigment still looks like steel from a distance. However, the fine cutout lace-like and delicate cut elevate the new works in the paper’s lightness, creating a floating, levitation impression. Depending on the distribution of light in the room, objects placed freely or hung in contact with the wall become a part of a diffused and, at the same time, dynamic game of shadows that visually transform into three-dimensional objects. The original motif of the artwork eventually gives preference to the form, and the form becomes the main narrative of the artwork. It doesn’t matter what the work resembles or what it associates with. Bodo Korsig’s latest works from paper tell about  form, light and shadow. (Ilze Žeivate)

“I want to offer a message, but never an immutable statement. I want the experience to be more like life itself, full of signs and symbols that we encounter and interpret.” 

Bodo Korsig was born in Zwickau, Germany. He works and resides in Trier (Germany) and New York (USA). In 1990 he graduated from The School of Advertising and Design (Fachschule für Werbung und Gestaltung) in East Berlin, where he studied sculpture and stone restoration.
His creating amplua includs sculpture, photography, video installation and stage design.  On multiple occasions he has collaborated with musicians, dancers, writers and poets, such as John Ashberry (USA), Peter Wawerzinek (DE), Paul Auster (USA) and Akira Tatehara (JPN), he has produced over 40 limited artist's books.
Bodo Korsig's works are in more than 50 public collections and museums all over the world, including Art Collection Telekom (Leipzig, Germany), Deutsche Bank Collection (Frankfurt, Germany), Art Museum Villa Zanders (Bergisch Gladbach, Germany), Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, Kupferstich-kabinett collection (Dresden, Germany), Academy of Fine Arts Vienna (Vienna, Austria), Czech Museum of Fine Arts (Prague, Czech Republic), Luxembourg National Museum of History and Art (Luxembourg), Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) (New York, USA), Brooklyn Museum of Art (New York, USA), National Gallery of Art (Washington D.C., USA), Yale University Art Gallery, Special Collections (New Haven, CT, USA), Smart Museum of Art (Chicago, USA), Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts (Kaohsiung, Taiwan), Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa (Wellington, New Zealand).