Sag mir wo die Sonne steht

POV contemporary presents Sag mir wo die Sonne steht, an exhibition of recent works by Béla Pablo Janssen. Sag mir wo die Sonne steht will be on view exclusively for the duration of Berlin Art Week. Against a soundtrack of systematic arpeggios, the works of BPJ move between architectural space and pictorial representation. To properly see these works, the dichotomy between "inside" and "outside" has to be put into parentheses. What viewers can discover thereby is the unfolding of a diaphanous narrative that imbues each work with a subtle sense of emergence—like the graduated hues of a morning sunrise or a crepuscular sunset. Within the frame of each painting an archived movement, a state of transition, is gestured at by way of contrast. Conventional relationships of figure / ground give way to holistic assemblages that earmark each piece, making it the record of a particular moment. Across the works exhibited in Sag mir wo die Sonne steht, viewers are reminded of their specifically human vantage point on time. Just as the sun seems to rise or set, relative to our senses, the rectangular portals BPJ opens into each painting document the emergence of the concrete from mists of abstraction. In a piece like Sag mir wo die Sonne steht (Foda-se Zeitgeist Schmetterling) (2024), the insectoid elements affixed to it are as much literal as symbolic: they document an irreducible experience while taking on all the connotations wings have in mythology and folklore. Contained by the sky-like architecture, a living creature almost seems to take flight, moving toward the area delimited by the brown rectangle, which could itself be near or far away, earth or sky. In Sag mir wo die Sonne steht (Water is a mirror too) (2024), the rectangle crafted into the fracture of the piece alludes to reflective surfaces of all kinds. The lipstick which marks the mirror suggests a particular person, an act of remembrance. But the folded, more opaque materials in place obscure the directness of this gesture. Between these stridulating contrasts, a hidden symmetry reveals itself. The intimacy suggested by the kiss is neutralized by the air of abstraction that permeates the painting. Simultaneously, the materials carefully gathered and inserted into the picture take on more studied, formal nuances that echo the surrounding space. Béla Pablo Janssen (b. 1981) was born in Cologne and has been working in residencies at home and abroad since 2017. His past exhibition titles tell the following story: Le soleil se lève derièrre l'abstraction; Mit Wenig nach Venedig; Schwerkraft als Problem der Malerei; MANHÃ NUNCA ACABA; mornings never end; ANARCHIVE; and Goldene Löwen wiegen zu leicht. After numerous international exhibitions, he most recently showed at the Kunsthalle Düsseldorf.