LOCATION
DIAL
GET OUT OF THE LIGHT
Neon Object
The artwork combines the numbers 7520, 152120, 156, 2085, 1797820, and the word “adeiga” in a red glowing block of numbers.
Brigitte Kowanz uses an alphanumeric encryption system. The letters of the artwork’s title are translated into sequences of numbers that correspond to the alphabetical order. She sums the number sequences and, following the same logic, and translates the sum back into letters. There is no zero in this coding system, so she skips the penultimate digit: “adeig(zero)a” corresponds to the sum of 1,459,701 of all number sequences.
The artist refers to the interaction between seeing and understanding, information and code. She thematizes language as a sign system for creating and storing knowledge. The representation as luminous digits accentuates the sign quality of light and the transformation of knowledge into energy.
“I am interested in language in that it creates or constructs reality, just as light makes it visible,” said the artist.
BRIGITTE KOWANZ (1957 — 2022)
Brigitte Kowanz’s works include objects, installations and site-specific interventions. She has worked with various light sources such as neon, fluorescent or LED as well as transparent materials such as acrylic glass and reflective materials such as mirrors. She researched how information changes when it is translated into signs, language and codes. Her works can be described as visual texts. The content of her typefaces is revealed in the dialogue between text, light distribution and reflection behaviour. Since the 1990s, she has favoured working with the Morse alphabet, the first electronic binary code, which often formulate tautological statements on the subject of light.
EXHIBITONS
2025 Vienna (at), ALBERTINA
2025 Zurich (at), HAUS KONSTRUKTIV
2025 Vienna (at), ALBERTINA MODERN
2025 Vienna (at), LEOPOLOD MUSEUM
2022 Nuremberg (de9, NEUES MUSEUM NÜRNBERG
2022 Linz (at), SCHLOSSMUSEUM LINZ
2021 Vienna (at), ALBERTINA MODERN
2020 Dubai (sa), EXPO 2020
2020 Unna (de), ZENTRUM FÜR INTERNATIONALE LICHTKUNST
2020 Zurich (ch), HAUS KONSTRUKTIV
2018 Hildesheim (de), LICHTUNGEN Light Art Biennale
2018 Celle (de), KUNSTMUSEUM CElle
2017 Venice (it), VENDIG BIENNALE, Austrian Pavilion
Regular exhibitions since 1995, mainly in Europe.
STUDIES
1997 — 2021 Professor at Universität für angewandte Kunst Wien
1975 — 1980 Hochschule für angewandte Kunst Wien
BIO
2022 Died in Wien (at)
1957 Born in Wien (at)
LINKS
REFERENCE
ZUMTOBEL COLLECTION
Thanks to the cooperation with the Zumtobel Collection, classic positions in the art history of light can also be shown. These artists paved the way for artistic work with light after the Second World War: François Morellet (1926 – 2016) was a co-founder of the GRAV (Group de Recherche d’Art Visuel) artists’ group, active in France and Latin America. Keith Sonnier (1941 – 2020) was one of the pioneers in the USA who began translating drawings into neon light in the 1960s. He later developed a series of light spaces entitled BA-O-BA to bathe in light. Brigitte Kowanz (1957 – 2022) focussed on the drawing quality of light.