The Forbidden Light is the name of this exhibition and of my new book. A book that brings together 110 oil pastel works on paper, all created while I was traveling. I look into the light and the world around me disappears. A white sheet and a rectangular image section, while the framing always remains more or less the same. A formal agreement, a frame like a window, where the surrounding space remains crucial. The surrounding space, which occupies the largest part of the sheet – my fingermarks and remains of paint, evidence of my presence. Perhaps even more noticeable here than within the image, because these leftovers are not planned or directed. Traces are unintentional, but they are there, like the rustle and crackle on a record. Acoustic environment, in this case visual, which means exactly the same thing. Everything disappears when I look into the blinding sunlight and brightness holds the same secret as darkness. We don't see anything in the dark, therefor we need the light, but its intensity is decisive. Colors can appear in the dark as the eyes adjust to this state over time, while in a state of permanent glare they fade and the eyes get damaged.

In order to get to the essence, it is necessary to leave out, to simplify and to erase, or does it make more sense to call it a fade out. In poetry, it is the space around the words that makes them shine. In this case, the white is a promise, not a danger. As a painter, this blank feels different, but it is necessary in particular within the unsettled space between abstraction and figuration. The aim is to work towards the state of greatest possible presence. Presence can change the viewer, by its emotional content, which is highly individual – therefor incalculable and poetic. Ultimately, the medium does not play a role, but the possibility that a condition can always change and collapse is a basic requirement.

I also reworked the pastels after many months and so the aspect of time and waiting played a significant part to develop this book. It seemed important to me that you can only see one picture at a time when paging. Although the sequence is not random and defines a certain course of action, the silent dialogue between the works arises mainly in the head. In the memory there are overlaps and similarities and the colors showing through the paper become something like an afterimage. Afterimages are images that are still perceived when the original light stimulus has already subsided, and they are most obvious as dark spots after looking at the sun. The impressions of a journey are strongest in the memories, not in the photos. When you mentally go back to certain places, which are always a bit all the places you have been to. Nothing is here, All forgotten - Nothing forgotten ..