Draft:Lars Koepsel

Lars Koepsel (* 1964 in Bingen am Rhein) is a German visual artist.

Biography
After finishing the gymnasium, Koepsel studied art history at the University of Mainz from 1983 until 1985. In 1985 he began an apprenticeship as a gilder and church painter in Allershausen, Bavaria, which he completed in Berchtesgaden three years later in 1988. Koepsel became self-employed as an artist in 1991. From 1998 to 2001 Koepsel studied philosophy at the LMU Munich. .

In 2013 he founded the Apartment of Art, a non-profit gallery in Munich, which he has been curating ever since.

Koepsel is married and has a son.

Art
Koepsel uses several different mediums in his art such as laid paper, old maps, old globes and jigsaw puzzles from his childhood, which he letters. The majority of Koepsel's work is characterised by the use of his handwriting. This type of text-based art consists of transcriptions of entire works of literature such as the Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri, Theaetetus by Plato , We Refugees by Hannah Arendt , In Praise of Folly by Erasmus of Rotterdam and The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx & Friedrich Engels. In the process of writing, the words and letters are superimposed in different layers, and therefore loose their literal relation to the subject of the text, which is only retained in the figurative sense, as the final artwork, together with the medium used for lettering, represents the socio-political essence of the text

Spending 2-3 months every year in Taiwan from 1995 to 2002, Koepsel studied Chinese calligraphy, which deeply influenced the use of handwriting in his own works. For his short film Game over, Koepsel collaborated with German-Polish composer Roman Pawollek.

Contextualising Quotes
In his 2003 essay Bücher abschreiben...Bücher werden Bilder (Transcribing Books... Books become Pictures), Heinz Schütz addresses in particular the use of handwriting within the artistic process:

"Koepsel's appropriation of texts takes place through multiple layers of writing and ultimately leads to an exercise in emptiness. Importantly, Koepsel doesn't just add the layers on top of one another, but rotates the sheet by ninety degrees whenever he starts a new layer, resulting in an illegible tangle of text. At first, the text remains readable, but the more layers are added (sometimes up to twelve), the more absurd the process of writing itself becomes as the sheet that served as a base is blackened more and more and the letters begin to fade: the writer may write, yet he can no longer read it. The text is physically complete by means of the writing process, but with increasing density of the layers of text, it eludes any kind of visual control. The writing process therefore renders itself a self purpose. (...) Through the superposition of different layers of text, the transcribed books turn into a construct of stratifications, and become their own palimpsests. This, together with the rotation of the artwork, results in a transition from text to image."

In his essay Das Unsichtbare in Bewegung (The Invisible in Motion), Damian Lentini, curator with the Haus der Kunst in Munich, attempts a primarily art-historical classification of Koepsel's work:

"[...] In some ways, one can draw parallels between Koepsel's captivating transcriptions of the Divine Comedy and Siah Armajanis extensive use of sufi poetry of the 13th and 14th century in his early works. Both processes render the texts almost entirely illegible, even to those that can read their language.

The works of both artists share a complex form of piety. This religiosity is already apparent in the work titles, but is more so embodied in the realisation of the pieces themselves. The repeated, meditative and even ascetic practices of devotion itself are reflected here. Although the calligraphic character remains a major feature of all these works, their loose, sketch-like execution on paper and radically altered backdrops elevate the devotion to the visual impression above the readability. (...) Since Koepsel's works are not derived from word and textuality, but are in fact poetry in themselves, one could be tempted to label them as anti-modernist. This, in combination with an abstract approach of drawing and painting, however, separates his art from most established norms of modernist abstraction – the lack of any kind of substantial narrative. This assumption also ignores the fact that the work as a whole embodies an ideal modernist form, as it defies calligraphic tradition and reproduces texts in almost incidental handwriting. The work therefore restores the literary [sic], diminishes the decorative, and emphasises the spiritual, making it altogether highly provocative."

Important exhibitions
Koepsel's works have been on exhibition in Germany, (German Society for Christian Art, Munich, New Gallery Dachau, Villa Stuck, Munich, Kulturspeicher Würzburg ), Austria (Vienna Künstlerhaus), Norway (Bergen Art Museum, together with Kurt Johanneson), Australia (QCA Gallery Brisbane), China and Taiwan (Dimension Endowment of Art Foundation, Taipei ).


 * 1999: lai (COME), Kunst im öffentlichen Raum, DEoA-Foundation; Taipei, Taiwan; Catalogue
 * 2001: Zen-Camera, curated by Sophie McIntyre, Queensland College of Art Gallery; Brisbane, Australia
 * 2003: Neue Galerie Dachau, Catalogue; Dachau, Germany
 * 2004: Game over, Vienna Künstlerhaus; Vienna, Austria
 * 2010: iAart at IT Park, Collaboration with Vernon Ah Kee; Taipei, Taiwan
 * 2014: Exercises of Emptiness; VT Artsalon; Taipei, Taiwan
 * 2018: Am Anfang war das Wort; Galerie Renate Bender; Munich, Germany
 * 2020: Wieder + Wieder, curated by Benita Meißner, DG Kunstraum Deutsche Gesellschaft für christliche Kunst, Catalogue; Munich, Germany
 * 2021: Shelter, Apartment of Art, Munich
 * 2022: You can take; DG Kunstraum Deutsche Gesellschaft für christliche Kunst, Munich
 * 2022: participation in CAMP notes on education at the invitation of the project No Measurements, Documenta fifteen.
 * 2023: participation in the Second Matsu Biennial; Matsu Islands, Taiwan

Collections

 * Bavarian State Library, Munich
 * Collection of the Aareal Bank, Wiesbaden
 * Lyrik Kabinett Collection Haeusgen, Munich
 * Private collections in Germany, Taiwan, Australia

Web Links

 * Official website
 * Website of the Apartment of Art

Referencess
Category:1964 births Category:German people Category:Contemporary artists