The Ephemeral Lake
INSPIRED BY CASPAR DAVID FRIEDRICH
As part of the celebration of the 250th anniversary of the birth of Caspar David Friedrich (1774–1840) in 2024, the Hamburger Kunsthalle is presenting The Ephemeral Lake, an immersive installation that highlights the unique expressive power of the works of the major Romantic painter by setting them in dialogue with digital landscapes created in the twenty-first century. This most recent project by Danish artist Jakob Kudsk Steensen (b. 1987) combines landscape painting with the latest digital media technologies such as 3D painting, interactive design, virtual world building and ambisonic sound in an extraordinary spatial installation created exclusively for the Kunsthalle.
Drawing inspiration from Caspar David Friedrich, Steensen examines in his visually powerful work the impressive natural phenomenon of the ephemeral lake. This geological term is used to describe periodic accumulations of water in arid, barren, often desert landscapes. Steensen is in the process of transforming scans and artefacts from his extensive research trips to some of the most inhospitable regions of the earth into an interactive exhibit controlled by AI and accompanied by music and recordings of environmental sounds. The virtual spaces of the artwork meld with visitors’ own inner worlds to create a very personal experience that – in the spirit of Romantic painting – illustrates the close bond between human and nature as well as the relationship between figure and landscape.
Jakob Kudsk Steensen uses 3D animation, sound and digital technologies to produce immersive installations that bring often overlooked or threatened natural phenomena to life through virtual simulations. Most recently, his work Liminal Lands was exhibited at Luma Arles and his installation Berl-Berl was featured at the Halle am Berghain in Berlin and the ARoS Museum of Art in Aarhus.
Sponsored by: Freunde der Kunsthalle e.V.
