Untitled

For more than thirty years, the artist Jochen Lempert has been creating a coherent work consisting of photographs, photograms and publications. In it he allows conditions such as changes in nature and those participating to be sensually experienced. His approach takes place between comparative vision, a penchant for scientific research and artistic experimentation. In this way he traces the diverse phenomena and the formal language of the animal and plant world. The view from Lempert’s studio window follows an admiral in early autumn on his onward journey through a busy street to the southwest. Before that, he was still sucking on the flowers of the ivy, which has been climbing up a house wall in the urban haze and noise for years. The bees also find their way past the grey, concrete surfaces to the nectar of the ivy blossoms. A pigeon with its grey plumage remains almost unrecognized here. Pushed back to designated and sparse areas, animals and plants are forced to find their way in this unbalanced coexistence and to adapt their way of life. They appear more like guests in the urban spaces appropriated by humans. The black and white photographs claim a warm, humble look at them. Lempert’s imagery thrives on this unbroken, subtle attention that brings our environment closer to us and questions the relationship between nature and culture. Lempert always narrates the human demarcation and the centuries-long neglect of ecological contexts.