Erdmute Blach

This page gives an impression of the residencies of Erdmute Blach, with a specific focus on her exhibition in 2015. Erdmute Blach´s own website: erdmute.eu, was under construction but can already be visited (an edition in English will soon be published). Her website gives a much broader visual overview of her work.

Works at the Canções Silenciosas exhibition; a selection

The opening, a performance, some visitors and a side activity

Cancões Silenciosas . A video impression of the exhibition and its opening.

try out with overhead projector

artists books

Erdmute Blach lives and works in Rostock, Germany. She studied math at Humboldt-University in Berlin. She is essentially a self taught artist but has also attended numerous courses and summer academies in Germany, Spain and Slovakia. She has taken part in exhibitions and other projects in Germany, Portugal, Sweden, Austria and the USA.

First of all Erdmute Blach is a painter, but she also created objects, collages, graphics and artist books. She is particularly interested in collaborations. She works together with Lars-Arvid Brischke (poetry), Thomas Kumlehn (music) and Britta Schönbrunn (dance). They together founded the Ensemble HALS OVERHEAD.

For her artist books and recent exhibitions have a look at her website.

During her yearly residencies since 2010 Erdmute Blach got deeply inspired by the Alentejan culture and landscape.  It resulted in a grand solo exhibition in 2015 in Évora (see below).
But already before it had spin offs: in 2012 she did a project together with Amílcar Vasques-Dias in the Institut Camões in Hamburg (Germany) and in 2014 she had an exhibition in Götenborg (Sweden) where she showed objects made of Portuguese cork.
She initiated a project: Entre o vento e a serra - Cante, Piano e Pintura (working title), with compositions by Amilcar Vasques Dias based on Alentejan folksongs. It may result in a life performance in 2016 with Pedro Calado (voice), Jaochim Soares (voice),  Amilcar Vasques Dias (piano), Helena Valverde (Photography) and Erdmute Blach (life painting). Have a look at the video on this page for an impression of a try out. 

Canções Silenciosas was the title of her exhibition in Palácio de D. Manuel in Évora (Portugal; 2 April -16 May 2015). She showed her “Portuguese” paintings that she largely made during her residencies at OBRAS.
With the slide shows on this page impressions are given of the Palácio de Dom Manuel, the exhibited works, the opening and her residencies.
At the opening Mara was singing: she improvised with fados as a starting point. Mara is a highly talented singer and performer from Évora, who is giving a new meaning to Alentejan and other Portuguese songs. See the video: Canções Silenciosas for an impression of the exhibition and the concert.

artist statement

"What interests me about both painting and music are rhythm, structure and sound quality. A lot of my pictures are based on ideas about sound, and some are actually created in connection with specific musical works or styles. It has nothing to do with illustration by the way, but refers to the phenomenon which interests me most in art too – the shading, the nuances that make both art and life so exciting. Like the blue notes in jazz, subjectively situated between the major and minor keys, which are what actually makes a blues piece blue in the first place. I personally find New Music extremely interesting and I like to join forces with composers, musicians and poets to look for forms of expression which combine the different arts".

Contact:
erd.MUT.e@gmx.net

Some snap shots of Erdmute´s Residencies (in random order)