Tim Berresheim. Neue alte Welt

In the organizer's words:

In the beginning was the word, fire and art. Tim Berresheim examines our present as a transition into a new digital age and stages an evolution of man and art with archaic power. The NRW-Forum presents spectacular visual worlds and extraordinary augmented reality productions by Berresheim. The comprehensive retrospective brings together his early work and current works conceived exclusively for this exhibition - analog and digital art come together.

Tim Berresheim (*1975) is considered a pioneer of computer-aided art. His work is an interplay of art history, technology and nature. He himself calls his method "artistic contemporary archaeology".
"I work like a Stone Age man with the first crude tools in my digital cave," says Berresheim. Like a hunter-gatherer, he wanders through archives, draws inspiration from art history, speculates on the future and uncovers new, hybrid visual worlds and aesthetics through his artistic research.

His oeuvre includes monumental wall works, complemented by paintings, drawings and sculptures. Everyday objects, replicas of natural artifacts such as early musical instruments, small sculptures and ritual objects also expand his artistic work and are part of the exhibition. In front of and inside the NRW-Forum, an augmented reality avatar of Berresheim and his famous art figures, the Aspettatori, invites visitors to play a game in which they themselves become hunters and collectors.

Berresheim works with the latest technologies, from computer-generated imagery (CGI), high-performance photography, laser and 3D scanning to 3D printing and mixed reality, to create something radically new. Most recently, he has been exploring caves such as Hohlen Fels and Vogelherd, which are UNESCO World Heritage Sites, and collaborating with prehistoric archaeologist and professor Nicholas John Conard. He became famous for discovering the world's oldest cultural objects in the caves of the Swabian Alb.

Berresheim calls his new cycle "Fundleere Schicht" (empty layer) - the term used in archaeology to describe a time when two epochs meet and leave behind no common artifacts. Berresheim's works are intended to close this gap. Through the contact between analog and digital art, a layer that from today's perspective is still empty is filled: with the beginnings of a new digital age.
The exhibition will be accompanied by guest lectures by archaeologists and palaeontologists, who will continue the arc of past, present and future.

Tim Berresheim studied under Albert Oehlen at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf and at the HBK Braunschweig under Johannes Brus. His works can be found in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art (New York), Sammlung zeitgenössischer Kunst der Bundesrepublik Deutschland (Bonn) and Kunstpalast (Düsseldorf).

The exhibition is curated by Alain Bieber, Artistic Director of the NRW-Forum.

Price information:

Full payer: 9 euros Reduced; 6 euros Free admission: Children and young people under 18 and members of the Freundeskreis