Ingmar ALGE, 2010 Rom Rom

In his works, Ingmar Alge often engages with places defined by waiting, with squares, spaces or landscapes that people visit only fleetingly. Further essential atmospheric elements in his works include mobility, absence, and light – in its natural or artificial form. He finds inspiration in photographs he has taken or found in magazines and periodicals. In the process, he proves to be a sensitive observer who generally reveals his impressions subtly and unobtrusively in his works. In “Rome,” the artist sparks dreams of travel; an airport departures hall is flooded with soft, purple light, contrasting with the waiting passengers, depicted as dark, almost blurred figures. Although the artistic rendering is unobtrusive, Alge succeeds nonetheless in ensuring viewers can identify with these people. We all know that feeling of wanderlust, having itchy feet, the sense of anticipation, of being in transit, of wanting to arrive. Airports are always redolent with a sense of the fleeting, anonymity, internationality, rapid pacing, encounters, separations, and reunions, while also being places where we leave our daily lives behind or even find them once again.

Ingmar Alge (Höchst/AUT 1971) studied painting at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. In 2002 he won a Bauholding Kunstförderpreis, the predecessor of today’s STRABAG Artaward International.