Exhibition Raphaël Fischer-Dieskau & Nils Blau - After the Forest...

A burning tree stands in the grain store of Gut Kerkow. Individual bird calls, which sound one after the other, create a soundscape over the dystopian scenario, populated by strangely alien abstract-organic creatures... The tree, an installation by Raphaël Fischer-Dieskau, appears not to have grown but to be assembled, constructed from individual parts, supported by a framework that reveals its vulnerability. Black, gnarled branches protrude from a visibly technical structure made of metal rods, cables, and apparatuses. Red LED light glows in the branch forks, while fine water vapor rises, creating the impression of smoke. What appears from a distance to be a moment of catastrophe reveals itself upon closer inspection to be a controlled simulation. The tree is a chimera – half natural body, half machine – a kind of Frankenstein of the landscape. In this artificial resurrection, the forest is not romanticized but shown as something that can only be technically stabilized, reconstructed, and remembered. The work raises the question of what remains after the forest: an image, an apparatus, an afterlife of light, steam, and memory. The bird calls – songs that usually have a calming effect – amplify the impression of the apocalyptic scenario, as the recorded sounds come from ten extinct bird species. Fischer-Dieskau's Concerto for Extinct Birds is an evocative acoustic installation that makes the loss of natural soundscapes tangible. Formally, the structure leans on a concert principle: The Kaua‘i o’o, an extinct bird from the island of Kaua’i, serves as the soloist, while the temporal sequence of the call sequences remains untouched. This creates a multi-voiced, simultaneously unnatural sound event that makes both the absence and the lost diversity of species audible. Nils Blau complements this approach on another level. His ceramic objects play with the recognizability of natural forms – like polyps of corals, gills of mushrooms, plant parasites, or seeds... – while simultaneously breaking this through their materiality. In his artistic practice, Blau explores the relationships between nature and artificial structures. He creates – partly interactive – ceramic installations and objects, whose surfaces initially simulate naturalness, but at the same time produce a sense of alienation that leaves an unnatural impression. The surfaces of the sculptures simulate naturalness, yet appear unnatural through their materiality and subtle estrangement. Through this hybridity between organic form and artificial structure, Blau invites viewers to perceive nature on different levels and to consciously reflect on its fragility. The works make the illusion of "naturalness" visible and create a platform where the dichotomy between nature and human construct becomes tangible. Together, the works of Fischer-Dieskau and Blau form an intense engagement with the fragility of nature, its afterlife in memory and technology, and the illusion of naturalness in a human-shaped world. Raphaël Fischer-Dieskau is a contemporary artist who works with installation, sound, sculpture, and digital media. His works combine different materials and forms of expression into atmospheric situations that address questions of nature, perception, and social responsibility. Drawing from a background in classical music, photography, visual arts, and ArtScience, sound plays a central role in his practice. Light, space, and sound serve as means to make loss, memory, and the fragile relationship between humans and the environment tangible. He is less interested in the representation of nature than in its resonance in a time of ecological and cultural upheaval. Raphaël Fischer-Dieskau has exhibited internationally in galleries and art institutions. His work oscillates between artistic research and sensory experience, investigating how contemporary media shape our understanding of the present and future. He lives and works in Berlin. Nils Blau works with sculptural ceramic installations that quote organic forms while simultaneously creating deliberate irritation. At first glance, his works resemble natural phenomena, but upon closer inspection, they reveal their artificiality and generate moments of alienation. At the center of his practice is the engagement with hybrid spaces between nature and the human-made environment. Through ceramic processes, Blau translates geological and dendrological structures into sculptural formations that oscillate between familiarity and strangeness, questioning the perception of nature as a construction, illusion, and transient phenomenon. His works have been presented internationally in institutional and commercial contexts, including at Art Biesenthal, in the Galerie im Turm, at the Berlin Art Fair, and in galleries such as Galerie Setareh. Nils Blau studied fine arts at the University of the Arts Berlin. He lives and works in Berlin and continuously explores the relationships between natural appearances and artificially created structures in his artistic work. More information: Project SPACED OUT.