LORE BERT
Art & Knowledge in the 5 Platonic Solids
55th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia
Collateral Events
Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana
St Mark's Square, Venice
28th May – 24th November 2013
Press conference : 28th May 4 p.m.
Opening : 28th May 5 p.m.
18th May 2013
Press conference: 28 May 4.00 p.m.
Opening: 28 May 5.00 p.m.
From 29 May until 24 November 2013, the collateral event of the German artist LORE BERT
Art & Knowledge in the 5 Platonic Solids will take place in the Sale Monumentali of the
Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana. It will be curated by Alice Jaillet-Brébant, Cristiana Coletti
and Petra Schaefer with the support of the ›van der Koelen Foundation for Art and
Science‹ in cooperation with the ›Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana‹.
The exhibition will show the large-sized environment 5 Platonic Solids – 5 mirrored
sculptures which are integrated in an ocean of folded paper – and 11 picture objects which are
180 x 180 cm in size each. Maurizio Messina, Director of the ›Biblioteca Nazionale
Marciana‹ (National Library of St Mark's), Dorothea van der Koelen, President of the ›van der
Koelen Foundation for Art and Science‹ and Bettina Gräfin von Pfeil, 3sat Cultural Editor,
will open the exhibition.
Art and Knowledge
The topic of Art and Knowledge refers to a constant in the oeuvre of Lore Bert: the dialogue
between fine arts and the universal heritage from philosophy, literature, mathematics and
astronomy. On the occasion of her 75th birthday, in the Gutenberg Museum in Mainz, she
implemented the exhibition Lore Bert and the Sciences with works in which she refers to
Kant, Aristoteles, Quine and Goodman, to Dante, Goethe and Rilke and finally to Copernicus,
Galilei and Cantor. Lore Bert's oeuvre is homage to the discoveries and the creative
achievement of these great minds, and expresses the confidence in the human being and the
rationality of the human being. The rapid flow of news, pictures and information of any kind
which we have to deal with nowadays is threatening to become a flood which may overpower
and confuse us. We lose our orientation. Without structures that support our relation to the
world, all information which we receive will lose its sense and meaning. The task of artists is
also to help the people to find a way to develop an idea of themselves again, and to create a
different vision of the world.
In this context, the work of Lore Bert can be implicitly regarded as suggestion of how to
recover a different concept of time and the ability to rationality, and to refer to the universal
dimension of the spirit again. In this sense, her work corresponds perfectly with the topic of
the 55th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia
: The Encyclopedic Palace.
The 5 Platonic Solids by Lore Bert
The main focus of the exhibition is the large-sized environment The 5 Platonic Solids which has
been installed in the centre of the Salone della Libreria Sansoviniana. The 5 Platonic Solids by
Lore Bert are integrated in an ocean of folded paper. They are 5 mirrored sculptures (ø 1.20 m)
which reflect the room and which create a visual link to the prestigious atmosphere of the library
and, in the spiritual sense, to the City of Venice and its history. They reveal the implied dialogue
between the artistic work and the spirit of the place – the library, a cultural symbol par excellence
– between Art and Knowledge. The Platonic Solids are regular polyhedra and represent the 5
elements – a topic which has been the object of Lore Bert's artistic consideration since 1988. The
tetrahedron stands for the fire, the hexahedron for the earth, the octahedron for the air, the
icosahedron for the water, the dodecahedron for the universe.
The environment is flanked by another 11 works (each 180 x 180 cm in size) which underline the
meaning of the title of the exhibition and the reference to the City of Venice. They refer to
Venetian architectural shapes and floor structures, the Transcendental Aesthetics by Immanuel
Kant, the Poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke and The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri – these are the
recurring topics in the oeuvre of Lore Bert, which are dedicated a new homage by the artist.
Lore Bert – biographical notes
Born in Gießen in 1936, and raised in Darmstadt, from 1953 to 1957 Lore Bert studied at the
Accademy of Fine Arts in Berlin, with the sculptor Hans Uhlmann who aroused her interest in
three-dimensional objects. Apart from picture objects and collages of paper, she implemented
more than 120 environments in museums and public institutions in Europe, Asia, Africa,
Arabia, the USA and Canada.
Constructional shapes, geometry, architectural elements, letters and numbers form her shape
vocabulary. Poetic and philosophical writings, logical connections, science, history,
characteristics, relations and the absolute in its universality comprise the intellectual content
of her work.
More than 200 exhibitions of Lore Bert - 40 of them in museums in more than 26 countries all
over the world - have been published in 95 books and catalogues. 38 are monographs.
Lore Bert was the Guest Artist of Honour at the Biennale of Sharjah (UAE) in 1999 and the
Biennale of Izmir (Turkey) in 2011.
She lives and works in Mainz and Venice.
La Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana (National Library of St Mark's),
founded by Cardinal Bessarione with the donation, in 1468, of his grand and precious
collection of greek and latin manuscripts, is one of the oldest and most valuable libraries in
Italy, with about 1 million books, manuscripts and incunables. The exhibition is located in the
library building towards the Piazzetta of the architect Sansovino.
On the occasion of the exhibition, a catalogue will be published with 360 pages, 300
colour illustrations and texts of different authors (in German, English, Italian).
An accompanying program with different events is in preparation.
In the near future, further information will be provided on the website at:
www.platonicsolids.lore-bert.com
Entrance during the vernissage (28/5/) and the preview days of the Biennale (29 –31/5/) via the Piazzetta, San Marco 13/a
Entrance during the exhibition (1/6/ – 24/11/2013) via Correr Museum, open from 10.00 a.m. to 06.00 p.m.
Biographical notes
1936 born on July 2nd in Giessen/Germany, grown up in Darmstadt. 1953-57 studied
painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Berlin with Prof. Hans Uhlmann who inspired
her sence for space. Since 1982 collages, relieves, transparencies and sculptures
with Far Eastern papers on paper, canvas and later also on wood. Since 1984
installations, paper rooms and environments with different materials. Since 1994
environments with neon letters, neon tubes, oriental neon numbers and neon
spheres. More than 125 installations in Europe, Asia, Africa, Arabic countries and the
USA have been realised in public space until 2010. Constructive, geometrical and
architectural shapes as well as numbers are her form elements. Poetic and
philosophic writings, logical constellations, qualities, universal relations and the
absolute in its poetic beauty create the mental and spiritual base of her work. Lore
Bert lives and works in Mainz/Germany and Venice/Italy. More than 200 solo and
group shows in more than 26 different countries world wide, document the ›Dialogue
of Cultures‹ in her work and are published in more than 38 monographs. Works in
numerous public and private collections.
• Contacts
o E-mail:
platonicsolids@lore-bert.com Tel.: +49 – 6131 – 3 46 64
o Dr. Dorothea van der Koelen Mob: +49 –171 – 4 208 280
o Alice Jaillet-Brébant Mob: +39 –328 – 879 34 94
o Cristiana Coletti Mob: +39 –349 – 14 17 727
o Petra Schaefer Mob: +39 –340 – 350 26 99
All information about the exhibition and the artist, including images and logos you find on the
attached LORE BERT – BIENNALE-Stick or at
www.platonicsolids.lore-bert.com or at
www.zkw.vanderkoelen.de.
