12 January - 1 March 2025
France Dubois - Susanne Roewer, The Song of the Bear - A Soft Symbiosis
In this upcoming exhibition, we will combine the work of two artists: photographer France Dubois from Belgium, and sculptor Susanne Roewer from Germany.
This is the first time their work is being shown together. They intend to take us on a journey through space and time, confronting strength and fragility, darkness and light, in a perpetual search for a personal and material balance of humankind and nature, or within nature.
This is the first time their work is being shown together. They intend to take us on a journey through space and time, confronting strength and fragility, darkness and light, in a perpetual search for a personal and material balance of humankind and nature, or within nature.
France Dubois, Le Chant de l'Ours/The Song of the Bear
In her series entitled Le Chant de l’Ours/The Song of the Bear, France Dubois recounts the mysterious and transcending encounter of two female figures with the forces of nature inside a dark forest, in search of both inner harmony and harmony with the environment that seems to generously offer shelter and to reconnect with us and with the universe.
“I whisper with the spirits of the woods. Time becomes circular. I am her, she is me, and we are the forest. I feel strong, inhabited by multiple lives. We complete a ritual that has existed since the dawn of time. It is our secret. We are specks of dust, trees, blood and rain. I feel no pain now. It’s as though I’m inhabited by a wild spirit. Between dog and wolf, the time of mysteries. On the brink of the invisible. Moments where different worlds coincide. I am no longer sad, for I write a tale of eternity.”
France Dubois unrelentingly explores spaces of intimacy; there is a thin border between dreams and reality, the visible and invisible. Her strength lies in her minimalist photographic style which has a powerful aesthetic appeal. The characters in her photographs appear to merge with their environment. The universal story she weaves from her own, makes her photographs an accurate and poetic reflection of our own inner lives.
France Dubois’ work has been shown in Belgium (Recylart, Médiatine, Bozar, Hangar Photo Art Center) and abroad: New York Photo Festival, Kaunas Photo Festival (Lithuania), Galerie VU’ (Paris), Itinéraires des Photographes Voyageurs (Bordeaux), Les Photaumnales (Beauvais), Les Transphotographiques (Lille), AIAV (Yamaguchi), Photo Art Fair (London), Fotofabrik BLN-BXL (Berlin), Blue Star Contemporary (San Antonio, Texas).
Susanne Roewer, Saving Touch I - II - III
Susanne Roewer’s sculptural work entitled Symbiosis combines natural stone (magma from over 2000 years ago) with glass. Glass in the shape of translucent giant rain drops touching the ground, organic forms which meet naturally to hold a fascinating moment of an ever-recurring but nevertheless ephemeral natural phenomenon.
“Pieces develop from stories, always triggered by a poetic element of human life and society, whether absurd or romantic, heroic or stupid, political or stand-alone. My sculptures build on the material knowledge and skills that were gathered since the beginning of mankind, and on the human need to give a material expression to immaterial things: power, transcendence, reason, freedom, or love”.
Susanne Roewer was the co-founder of G7 Berlin (exhibitions and editions) and, together with Kurt Dyrhaug (Texas, USA), was co-chair of the International Conference on Contemporary Cast Iron Art in Berlin in 2022. She studied material sciences in Freiberg and Nuremberg/Erlangen, and Fine Arts at the UdK in Berlin. Her works have been shown in many solo and group exhibitions in Germany and abroad: USA, UK, China, Italy, Latvia, Sweden, Australia, Switzerland. Works by Susanne Roewer are in private and public collections in Germany, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, France, the USA and Australia.
Born in Bad Schlema (Germany) in 1971, Susanne Roewer lives and works in Berlin.
Born in Bad Schlema (Germany) in 1971, Susanne Roewer lives and works in Berlin.