Let the Distance keep us Together

Walter Dahn passed away on November 7, 2024, just a few days after the opening of his solo exhibition ‘Have Love Will Travel’ at Haus Mödrath on October 20. We had the great privilege of experiencing a particularly wonderful and intensive preparation and build-up phase with Walter. In countless conversations, he repeatedly referred to his time as a teacher in Braunschweig - above all because of ‘his’ students. He was in intensive dialogue with some of his students. It was always about art, music and film. Always ‘at eye level’, as Walter constantly emphasised. For years, even decades. ‘Let's see’, “look here” or “what do you think of this...” - this is how the exchange, the mutual interest, the expression of mutual appreciation often began. They were more, much more than just his ‘students’. For Walter, they were fellow artists with equal rights. But more than that, they were his friends, actually already part of his family, an integral part of his cosmos.

And we can now bring these close student family friends together again in a small series of exhibitions. With genuine enthusiasm and conviction, they all agreed spontaneously. They are sure that Walter would love it. And because Walter Dahn's exhibition will run for another eight months until the end of August 2025 at Haus Mödrath, we have the fantastic opportunity to showcase one of these artists every month in our studio in the basement.
 

CHRISTOF JOHN

Looking at Christof John's pictures means being confronted with an immediate change of states. His pictures are both precise and blurred at the same time, and they are tainted with deliberate errors. They are interspersed with geometric elements that are juxtaposed with organically soft surfaces. Their structures, grids and raster with a harsh alternation of colours appear extroverted and are an allusion to the artificial design of our world by humans. At the same time, however, her intimate, delicate painting style radiates something introverted.

John's pictures contain changes that challenge us to constantly compare and reassess visual weightings. You cannot stop at the exterior, the mere structure. With their subliminal emotionality, they also provoke our inner selves, turning the objective against the subjective, confronting the organic with the constructed. In their permanent counter-looseness, these images dismantle themselves, us and our world that has been pushed away from nature.

Christof John, born in Hanover in 1984, studied fine art under Walter Dahn in Braunschweig from 2006 to 2012 and lives and works in Cologne.