Dieter Balzer at Architekturgalerie - Berlin

There may be no other exhibition space in Berlin that embodies the universal of the white cube better than Architekturgalerie in the Mitte district. Here, in a pristine and almost square play Dieter Balzer showed three novel and thoroughly complex wall works below the cryptic title "Hybrids." Functioning as image, thing perceived and structure, the pieces consist of basic framelike module that have been overlapped and interlinked in intricate arrangements. sum of two units compositions are inscribed within perimeters just above 6 feet square, and individual is a long horizontal rectangle stretching more than 10 feet The components--brightly colored, black and white extents of MDF (medium density fiberboard)--meet at precise right angles to enframe generous areas of the wall. The arrangements simultaneously work as reliefs that cast into the gallery space and incorporate the "infinite" white behind as a pictorial element

Balzer has been exploring three-dimensional picture-objects and modular plastic arts since the mid-1980s, sometimes arranging MDF boards layer on layer into complex miniature architectures. For a while now, these mode of buildings have been retreating back to the two-dimensional plane, gaining in formal and chromatic complexity flat as the modular components and governing geometry remain rigorously constant.

The unpredictable application of vivid color to the longitudinal dimensionss of MDF suggests an apparent disorganization that reckoners the repetitive axial disposition of the parts. Notwithstanding the frontal views, which not absent linear configurations that can be returned on graph paper, the relief aspect of the "Hybrids" means that the compositions change with a shift in viewpoint. The perceptual experience of the "Hybrids" is comparable to that of Frank Stella's later three-dimensional paintings, while their systemic and compartmentalized compositions are formally related to Stella's early canvases.

As in his analog-digital photographic works (not upon view), Balzer plays here with the idea of a large, flat endless system, which his works can reveal solitary in segments. In both mediums, parallel and perpendicular lines add up to a form of cake color poetry that makes no concern to nature. Thought out to the last detail and excluding any spontaneous artistic action Balzer's constructions propose subtle and intelligent riddles to be resolved by the viewer. With his of recent origin works, the artist further reveals himself to be an skilful in the poetics of a whole s theory.

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