Staffa´s Cage

To mark the 250th anniversary of Caspar David Friedrich's birth, the Circus Eins Gallery in Putbus presents the exhibition "The Green Ray," featuring recent works by Florian Ecker, Patricia Lambertus, and Christin Wilcken that draw on Friedrich's motifs and ideas. The exhibition is supported by the Fund for Western Pomerania and Eastern Mecklenburg of the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. Ecker, Lambertus, and Wilcken each approach Friedrich's artistic legacy in their own unique way and have created new works specifically for this exhibition. The exhibition includes installations, video, photography, and drawings that demonstrate how Friedrich's ideas remain relevant for artists today.

The exhibition commemorates the 250th anniversary of Caspar David Friedrich's birth. Born in Greifswald, he is considered a pioneer of artistic innovation. Since his rediscovery in the 1970s, he has inspired artists worldwide. His work laid the foundation for the autonomy of art from mere representation, pioneered participatory strategies through the inclusion of viewer figures in his paintings, and, through his perspective on the relationship between humanity and nature, stimulated the concept of environmental conservation.

The exhibition takes its title from a weather phenomenon that occurs under certain light conditions on the coast, causing the sunset to fade with a green glow. While this has always been a rarely seen sight, reserved in Jules Verne's novel of the same name for "lovers," it is now almost impossible to experience due to excessive air and light pollution.

Patricia Lambertus uses her own imagery and props to create panoramas that visually immerse the viewer in the space. She has taken Jules Verne's novel "The Green Ray" as the starting point for a "visual roller coaster ride" (Arie Hartog) through time and space, from Staffa Island and Fingal's Cave to the Green Vault, Verner Panton's camouflage seating landscape, and climate stickers. Friedrich's Wanderer above the Sea of Fog contemplates the shattered glass of a painting. Her wall collage confronts Friedrich's motifs with the global context of climate change, environmental destruction, and postcolonialism.