AMM Artist Spotlight: Bodo Korsig
“I am interested in creating a new pictorial language…”
Michael Reiss: What artists do you emulate?
Bodo Korsig: I admire a lot of people in different fields and they have all been important for me. In music: Arvo Part, Philip Glass, Steve Reich. In art: Louise Bourgeois, Richard Serra Choreographer: Robert Wilson, In Sasha Waltz. In film: Werner Herzog and David Lynch. I have collaborated with writers, actors, dancers and visual artists. My work has always explored the relationship between art and social connections.
MR: What are the themes of your work?
BK: My main theme has been to model human behavior under extreme conditions such as fear, violence, pressure, or death. In this I am especially intrigued by the neurological and cognitive processes that are difficult to record purely scientifically. I want to provoke a new perception of the processes at the interface of biological determination and human consciousness. Through biological figure, metaphysical symbol, I am interested in creating a new pictorial language as the expression of brain functions in human awareness.
MR: What is art to you?
BK: It’s dealing with my past, it’s dealing with my experience in life. It’s healing me, because I’m working on some subjects . But it’s also making me an open field to the viewers. Maybe even making them feel richer. It’s not about solutions but if I can make people discuss a subject that I brought up, that would be fantastic.
Bodo Korsig was born in Zwickau, Germany. He studied sculpture at FWG Berlin and now lives in New York and Trier where he is a Professor at the European Academy of Fine Art, Trier.
He has exhibited in over 100 Museums and Galleries extensively, nationally and internationally, including; Barcelona, Palma, Chicago, San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles, Seoul, Paris, Berlin, Milan, Dresden, Prague, Copenhagen, Luxembourg, Auckland, Tokyo, Kyoto and Beijing.
Korsig’s work is both funny and serious. Working in a variety of mediums and modes, including woodcut, Artist books, and sculpture. He plays with the subconscious, the familiar, the mundane, and the miniscule. Korsig explores the boundaries of philosophy and science by questioning personal identity, how the human mind is composed and how these boundaries can be artificially influenced.
