Wolfgang Voigt
Lovely Ugly Brutal World
Exhibition June – July 2025
Exhibition Views
Works
Lovely Ugly Brutal World, 2025, UV cured direct printing on aluminum plate, 120 x 200 cm, edition 3 + 1 AP
Acidpark Köln 2, 2025, UV cured direct printing on aluminum plate, 60 x 100 cm, edition 3 + 1 AP
Acidpark Köln 3, 2025, UV cured direct printing on aluminum plate, 60 x 100 cm, edition 3 + 1 AP
Acidpark Köln 4, 2025, UV cured direct printing on aluminum plate, 60 x 100 cm, edition 3 + 1 AP
Acidpark Köln 1, 2025, UV cured direct printing on aluminum plate, 60 x 100 cm, edition 3 + 1 AP
Domplatte 1, 2025, UV cured direct printing on aluminum plate, 150 x 270 cm, edition 1 + 1 AP
Acidgarten 2, 2025, UV cured direct printing on aluminum plate, 100 x 60 cm, edition 3 + 1 AP
Acidgarten 3, 2025, UV cured direct printing on aluminum plate, 60 x 100 cm, edition 3 + 1 AP
Acidgarten 1, 2025, UV cured direct printing on aluminum plate, 60 x 100 cm, edition 3 + 1 AP
Domplatte 3, 2025, UV cured direct printing on aluminum plate, 60 x 100 cm, edition 3 + 1 AP
Domplatte 2, 2025, UV cured direct printing on aluminum plate, 60 x 100 cm, edition 3 + 1 AP
Röslein Silber, 2025, UV cured direct printing on aluminum plate, 60 x 100 cm, edition 3 + 1 AP
Silbergarten 1, 2025, UV cured direct printing on aluminum plate, 100 x 60 cm, edition 10 + 3 AP
Loop and Destroy, 2025, UV cured direct printing on aluminum plate, 150 x 270 cm, edition 1 + 1 AP
Silbergarten 3, 2025, UV cured direct printing on aluminum plate, 100 x 60 cm, edition 3 + 1 AP
The exhibition title Lovely Ugly Brutal World quotes the title of a record that Wolfgang Voigt released in February 1993 under his then underground-acid-techno-pseudonym Mike Ink. The four tracks on the 12“ mark a milestone in gabber, a form of techno beyond 180 bpm. The soundtrack of an unleashed era of universal 360-degree liberation in the fast lane. The accelerator pedal at the stop. Pure acceleration – until time bends, the groove comes to a standstill, the beat becomes a sound surface, and silence reigns. White noise. Ambient.
In the exhibition of the same name, Wolfgang Voigt references the physical, intellectual, and artistic overstimulation of that era, which exemplifies the creative energy that recurs in intervals, fueled by overheating and overexcitement, and the tipping point where it turns into its apparent opposite: the calm after the storm.
The timeless opposites in Voigt’s creative work increasingly morph into a superior simultaneity of their diametrically opposed poles. Instead of a balanced center, a kind of squaring of the circle emerges. Quiet loudness, dark lightness, fast slowness…
In the current exhibition, Voigt continues his essential Lifetime themes. Varying, repetitive structures and forms (beat, pattern, loop, etc.) interplay with sample- (photo)-based gestural deconstruction of the world as he sees it. With a fresh perspective through the old Popacid glasses, Wolfgang Voigt transforms his familiar universe of the eternal forest and his own city into a new materiality, placing it in a new vibrational state.
In the images, all on aluminum, the blurring of time is reflected in the pale techno light. The signs disappear, disintegrating into porous beauty. What was believed to be certain melts away. Structures dissolve, yet they cling to the metallic surface.
The accompanying music compresses the essence of the moment. It goes back to zero once more and celebrates the purity of the loop. The screams of universal massacre pop fall silent.
Stoic gabber. Silence.
Loop and Destroy.
