Helge Leiberg: Paarzeiten

Helge Leiberg (born 1954 in Dresden, lives in Berlin and in the Oderbruch) has devoted himself entirely to the human figure. He likes to reduce his characters to human symbols using condensed line ornamentation. His expressive figurines often only need to be hinted at. He concentrates the form on the essentials, reducing his figures to overly elongated silhouettes.

In the ecstatically overstretched postures of his female figures, they also selflessly explore their own movements. It is a sensed choreography, a vital way of life that reveals itself in energetic dynamics. This often takes place in front of monochrome backgrounds, removed from space and time without any foreshortening of perspective.

Leiberg examines, observes and marvels at even the smallest social community – the couple. He tests togetherness, the relationship between the sexes, registers attraction and rejection, like and dislike, closeness and distance. Leiberg reveals himself to be an imaginative dance master who drags his couples onto the dance floor to an imaginary staccato rhythm. The dance is a love game, a duel, a fool’s dance, even a dance of death. The man leads, the woman seduces. The bodies in passionate cooperation between pleasure and pain. They embody a life-affirming agility and liveliness.