Dilum Coppens

In den medialen Bilder der Stadt Aleppo im Krieg macht Dilum Coppens eine verstörende Distanz angesichts des Schreckens aus - und beginnt genau an diesen Bildern seine künstlerische Arbeit.

Verschiedene Medien und Materialien werden verdichtet und transformiert - das Bild Aleppos wird in eine abstrakte Ferne gerückt und blitzt doch immer wieder als Realität auf.

Während die mediale Abbildung Aleppos die Stadt in eine mythische, paradox unnahbare Sphäre einkapselt, legt die reflexive künsterlische Berabeitung von Coppens in der Fremdheit seiner Bilder die Unvorstellbarkeit des Krieges frei.

"I decided to translate my own feelings and thoughts of Aleppo into a visual work that tied in with the experiments I had previously done, and which correspond with my ideas.

The idea was to translate the colours and forms of Aleppo into abstract impressions, making them into myth-like visions.

Aleppo, for me, was a sort of myth, a distant and unknown territory that was inaccessible and
which news’ related to it always had a question mark with it: was it true or just a fable?

Instead of shelving the work, I decided to try and open it up to give it a “breaking point” in which the issue of Aleppo, which is dealt with so distantly, suddenly
becomes closer.

In this process, I ended up with a glitch-video of drone-footage of Aleppo, which is rendered almost unrecognisable and abstract, but yet retain some breaks where the reality breaks through the aestheticization."

(Dilum Coppens)