VENICE.- “Chiave Della Luce” - the key to light - is the name of the exhibition by the German artist Kilian Saueressig, which will be shown from October 17 to November 12, 2020 in the legendary Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana, right on St. Mark's Square in Venice. Curated by Manfred Möller, as part of the Edition Minerva series, the exhibition includes around 30 self-illuminated works that are designed as light wall sculptures with LED lighting. In the works, complex philosophical, religious, political and / or scientific topics are presented in an abstract manner.

Kilian Saueressig, who successfully worked as a civil engineer and inventor before his artist career, comments on his exhibition: “Light is the key to knowledge, the key to life. Without light there is no life and without light one cannot see. The transformation of light in the form of reflection, absorption and transmission allows us to look at pictures and sculptures. The light becomes pictures in our heads. The pictures become emotions. Ideas become pictures. It's a transformation. The fascination of converting light into mass and mass into light. That is the universal principle on which everything is based. Are mind and soul a special form of light? The exhibition “Chiave della luce” investigates this question and encourages the viewer's imagination and magic.




The self-illuminated works by Kilian Saueressig are multi-layered. They are shaped microscopically as well as macroscopically, whereby the colors communicate with the shapes. The works usually have at least two image levels that are more or less strongly decoupled from each other for the viewer. As soon as the internal light source of the works of art is switched on and its color and brightness are varied, new visual impressions arise. The different image motifs, in their respective image levels, overlap together with the color of the background lighting to create a multitude of new images. A fascination that the works of art exert especially at night and at the same time color the room in which they are located in a velvety shade and integrate the room and the viewer into the work of art.

The artist places particular emphasis on the environmental compatibility of the bio-based materials used.

Kilian Saueressig
Saueressig, born in 1969, is a qualified mechanical engineer and passionate inventor who holds numerous patents in the field of surface finishing, molding technology and embossing. As a partner and managing director, he successfully managed a medium-sized family business in the printing industry for many years. But his passion for art flared up already in youth. Today he can fall back on a rich pool of ideas. Saueressig first showed his art to the public in 2019. Creativity and technological competence are his tools, Kilian Saueressig realizes his ideas by implementing them with his "toolbox", his know-how and an unusually profound understanding of materials. In his art, both the creative and the analytical-technological element manifest themselves equally. These two different worlds merge into one unit: Saueressig creates its own, structured cosmos of art, reminiscent of the structure of an atom. In the four levels, which consist of globes, cycles, segments and variations, he deals with philosophical, sociological, ethical, political, religious and scientific topics. Saueressig thus creates his own, analytical and time-critical art universe, into which he invites the viewer to immerse himself. Kilian Saueressig plays with innovative color and design processes that he has developed himself and that go far beyond the currently known approaches. Metallic effects, matt-gloss effects, micro-macrostructures, manual and digital shaping technologies, etc. Kilian Saueressig has a keen sense of color, the change of color is a decisive characteristic of his art. Philosophy and innovation are two very important driving forces for Kilian Saueressig. He sees art as his emotional output medium for his findings and messages. His philosophy quickly becomes clear in his works. Most of his works have in common the simplification of complex relationships in a work of art. In doing so, the artist questions the motivations of mankind: Why and why is something happening and what are the effects? It is analytical and time-critical, but also offers possible solutions for a human world in the future. Kilian Saueressig is driven by the urge for knowledge and innovation into the self-designed future. Any kind of art is always a child of its time. It is always in mutual interaction with its environment and in particular with technological developments in our modern age.

Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana, Venice
The Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana is one of the largest national libraries in Italy with one of the most important collections of Greek, Latin and Oriental manuscripts. The library, founded in 1468, which is still impressive today with its monumental rooms, houses over 900,000 volumes. Mostly built by Jacopo Sansovino and completed by Vincenzo Scamozzi, the grand staircase, the vestibule and the main hall with its richly decorated historical and artistic rotunda are among the highlights of the library right on St. Mark's Square. Today, exhibitions and events such as for the Biennale take place in this renown museum.