See the Light at the new Goethe-Institut

Verena Friedrich’s “Cellular Performance”

Barely unpacked in its new digs in the Quartier des Spectacles, the Goethe-Institut is off in a flash. Or a photon, that is. A beautiful new façade displays the Institut’s new media exhibition, When do I see Photons?, featuring students and members of the Kunsthochschule für Medien Köln (Academy of Media Arts, Cologne).

In 1990, Austrian and angsty cyberneticist Oswald Wiener posed the question that gives the exhibition its title. Photons are the smallest light particles that stimulate the retina. In his quest to understand the relationship between seeing and consciousness, Wiener wondered if photons are ever seen. Can we see what we don’t know?

The public is invited to consider the question by visiting the Goethe-Institut’s windows after dark. There, the works on display respond with images and sounds that project into the public space, an extension of the Quartier des Spectacles’ Luminous Pathway.

“The works developed out of an open studio for students,” says Kaisa Tikkanen, Cultural Program Coordinator of the Goethe. “Mathias Antlfinger worked with the students in Germany to develop projects for the windows.”

The mature and creative works are diverse and offer different approaches to the idea of visual perception. Vera Drebusch’s work “Beamer Walk” is an experimental film, in which a beam of light projected into the darkness illuminates a path that is followed and filmed by a camera. Only things struck by the beam come into view, while the rest of the world recedes into shadows.

Jan Goldfuss’ “EnTroPI” makes use of algorithms to generate organic, free-floating shapes that look like 3-D Etch-a-Sketch doodles of microbiological organisms. Set to ambient sounds, the shapes grow and dissolve, as if governed by Darwinian forces.

No less a nod to biology, Verena Friedrich’s “Cellular Performance” manipulates human and animal cells to spell word fragments. Filmed through time-lapse photography, the cells move and wiggle on the screen.

Other works include Sunjha Kim’s aptly titled “[s],” which turns attention to the sibilant sound. Finally, Mathias Antlfinger and Ute Hörner offer a look at the relationship between humans and animals. In “Kramfors,” they transform a Swedish leather sofa back into a sculpture of the source material (a cow), while the video “Two Homes” juxtaposes birds as pets and as food.

“It was a wonderful collaboration,” Tikkanen says, “This is the kind of thing we do, working with young artists. It gives them the opportunity to experience something new and from our side, it is very satisfying.” ■

When do I see Photons? is on at Goethe-Institut (1626 St-Laurent, suite 100) starting at sundown every evening to Dec. 31