Simone Gilges
Born in Bonn, 1973 and lives in Berlin, Germany
With attention to the intricacies of material, construction and placement, Simone Gilges’ photographs, found objects and sculptures form an intriguing symbolic system. Gilges mixes monochromatic and minimal styles with expressive uses of colors and figures. Her work is permeated by a powerful sense of the uncanny; she infuses textures and images with a dramatic, atmospheric charge. Evoking a magical and emotive experience of time, place, and action, Gilges both romances and unsettles the viewer. Recalling Beuys’ investigations of the poetic and political resonances of materials, she invests her work with a sense of both revelation and mystery. She arranges elements in ways that privilege texture and tactility. With a theatrical flair reminiscent of Duchamp, she explores the social and personal implications of mixing abstraction, figuration, and performance. Simone Gilges (Bonn, Germany, 1973) works in photography and sculpture and the crossover between them. Gilges studied visual communication at Universität der Künste Berlin and photography at the Fachhochschule Dortmund. She is a founding member of Honey-Suckle Company (HSC), Berlin, founder of the publishing house and project space Neue Dokumente, Berlin, and publisher of “freier: the magazine for states of mind.”