COLOGNE.- The works in the solo exhibition »Shelter from the Storm« repeatedly show the subject of the butterfly. Depicted in flight amidst historical planetary maps, they refer to the human's deep-rooted desire to explain their world and environment while trying to recognize themselves. His works are surrounded by alchemical, ritualistic mystical power and cosmic energy. On the one hand, they help us to deal with the strongly ambivalent themes and feelings of the current social and interpersonal situation in a melancholy, emotional and intimate way. They show us the dark side of being human, and above all personal developments in the course of life. On the other hand, however, they give us stability in an inscrutable world in which cheerfulness and illusion are imposed as dogma. In a society in which distance often takes precedence over depth.

From caterpillar to chrysalis, from chrysalis to butterfly. Enclosed, asleep, awakened, broken open, reborn. Butterflies are fragile creatures, made by the harshness and beauty of nature. They are of delicate grace and yet born through metamorphosis. Comfortable and uncomfortable, oppressively constricted and yet secure. Locked up, alone in seclusion, in the protection of their own creation. First the cocoon and then the colorful expressiveness of their being. In confinement and then in soft flight.

When I was very young
Nothing really mattered to me
But making myself happy
I was the only one

Now that I am grown
Everything′s changed
I'll never be the same
Because of you

When butterflies, the colorful winged creatures, come into the storm, they hide under leaves or in small caves. Because if they were touched by the drops of rain, they would lose their butterfly dust. The colorful scales on their wings are hollow and not only decorative, but also provide stability for their wings. The storm would destroy their stability. So, they hide. Although they will never see their own wings and their own beauty. They will probably not even notice their gentle flight. They leave the fascination of their metamorphosis and the splendor of their wings only for their outside world admirers. They are surrounded by naive purity. Like the pure form of love.

Love preserves naivety. It lets us keep what we had in childhood. The time when everything is asked, but nothing is questioned. Nothing has value and everything has meaning.

And then at some point we also start to hide. Experiences come, being human, being an adult, being in the midst of the storm. We love differently, we love romantically. And loving for the first time is childish, is careless, means no protective shield, and means floating, laughing and crying. Impartiality then reveals to us the dangers and disappointments that love supposedly harbors. We begin to confuse imprudence with danger, because we cannot trust others anymore. And then we come to realize that everything - including the self - strives for destruction, for decay. That every day on earth brings our body closer to what is the same for all of us: death.

Our naivety is lost. And naïve is often a derogatory term. But it means »of a childishly unbiased, direct and uncritical way of thinking and feeling, demonstrating trusting guilelessness«, in literary studies even »in full harmony with nature and reality«, in drama naivety stands for the role of the »youthful lover«3. When did naivety become something with negative connotations?

Nothing really matters
Love is all we need
Everything I give you
All comes back to me

Looking at my life
It′s very clear to me
I lived so selfishly
I was the only one

At first, in our childhood, we are the caterpillar, then become the cocoon. At first, in best case we are allowed to be everything and then suddenly we must be something. Adapt, make ourselves tough so that we can't be hurt. Prepare ourselves, allow ourselves to be determined by others.

How much Weltschmerz this contains shows the brokenness of young society, the taboo on feelings, the censorship of depth, the easy replaceability, the backups and escapes, that makes profound love fade more and more. Suddenly we enter a world in which vulnerability is a risk, showing feelings is equated with weakness, and coolness with strength - an open heart is confused with neediness, love is tricked by games. In which superficiality, the objectification of people and their interchangeability rob us of our strength and make us feel lonely. The chaos of life, which once did not frighten us, suddenly becomes threatening.

And yet we are all so tired of having to be strong, but no one admits it openly anymore. The fragile being for whom the harshness of the world is too much still lives in all of us.

In »Shelter from the Storm«, Thomas Renwart writes us a story in which the butterflies guide us back to who we were. Giving us the support to be vulnerable again, to feel noticed and not replaceable. It offers us this space, a shelter from the stormy world, it sets depth over distance.

I realize
That nobody wins
Something is endin'
And something begins

Nothing takes the past away
Like the future
Nothing makes the darkness go
Like the light

You're shelter from the storm
Give me comfort in your arms4

Thomas Renwart shows that we are protected in our intimate space and have the ability to create it. That what we fear and protect ourselves from can ultimately be our liberation. It is about finding stillness in a difficult world, rediscovering the dignity in the little things, surrendering to naïve faith again and having trust.

Perhaps love is our salvation. Perhaps love is our protection. And perhaps love does not mean pain after all, but is our only consolation. Perhaps love is what remains, what always was meant to stay and the only thing we don't have to be afraid of.
Nothing dispels darkness like light.

Thomas Renwart's (*1995, Belgium) textile wall works, woven and partly embroidered, show ambivalent subjects. He weaves his pictures on a loom in his studio in Ghent, in an old monastery. For him, weaving has a meaning of ancestral and cultural heritage. His grandfather owned a weaving mill and his grandmother taught him how to embroider. The genre of wall tapestries also has a long tradition in Belgium. Renwart takes this up and translates it into the present. He mixes personal thoughts and feelings in pictorial form, often framed by text, with content from literature, science, history or pop culture. His references are a mixture of poetry and realism, memory and statement.

Renwart not only has a preference for the mythological, but also for the mystical and enchanted. He sees something hidden in the flora and fauna and expresses this in his works. His sensitivity to feelings, memories, the supernatural and the poetic is interwoven with the material in such a way that a different manifest reality is created that combines beauty and drama.

3 Vgl. Oxford Languages Dictionary
4 Vgl. Madonna – Nothing Really Matters, Album: Ray of Light, 1998