TRACING ETERNITY:  JANINE THÜNGEN-REICHENBACH’S SCULPTURE IN BRONZE

The fluid and ethereal interplay of time and space defines the creative narrative of multidisciplinary artist Janine Thüngen-Reichenbach (Monaco, 1964), based in Rome since 2000. KALPA is honoured to present a selection of her fascinating abstract sculptures and vessels in bronze, born out of the artist’s intent of unveiling ancient traces and creating a tangible continuum from the past into the future. 

Janine’s artistic research is multifaceted and ever-evolving. She creates works in many sizes, using a variety of mediums ranging from bronze, washi paper, clay, glass and water, and even plants: from small to monumental sculptures and from sound to land art installations. Works imbued with deep philosophical and scientific references, her vision is inspired by the vivid contrasts in humankind and nature: a dance of concave and convex forms, airiness and thickness, emptiness and fullness.

Cultivating a long-term fascination with the relation between the past and present, Janine moves her focus into the pre-Christian catacombs of Domitilla and San Callisto below her house, to search for otherworldly stories. This research led her to create a series of works resulting from a complex and long process, according to which she takes silicon impressions of the ancient walls of the Roman catacombs, to obtain unique double-sided matrices to be used for casting in bronze or creating washi paper artworks. In the process of creation, the artist merges the negative and positive sides allowing the coincidence of space and time in a single membrane that simbolically joins past, present and future in a unique creation of physical continuity.

“Capturing the shapes and the imperfection of the manually excavated ancient walls, Janine brings to light the material substance of the catacombs, destined to remain in darkness.”

As in the case of the elongated DNA sculptures, these works show a texture reminiscent of the surface of meteorites carrying a universal meaning of the precariousness of life. Janine’s approach follows a concept of sculpture in which the dimensions of space and time are intertwined with the notions of extension and motion, imagining another direction beyond length, width and depth and entering thus the fourth dimension. 

Her artworks feature a light and organic movement, alongside an earthy and compact texture, reflecting their intrinsic bond with the ground. Her effort in dematerializing the sculpture gives discontinuity to the matter and a perception of lightness and motion. As an impressionist sculptor, Janine embraces the lesson of the renowned modern artist Medardo Rosso to render sculpture ephemeral through the changing effects of light. Thus in her creations, she looks for distortions, unexpected movements and angles that challenge the viewer’s perception of a solid sculpture.

“My fascination with bronze lies in the fact that it is a material that goes from liquid to solid, going through a transition of state during my creative process.”

At the core of her creative research is the concept of void, as a dense space of infinite possibilities where imagination and thoughts are expanded. This subject is investigated particularly in the two series Vessel and Vuoto è pieno, a variegated body of functional art pieces. Fully embracing the pivotal concepts of Eastern Taoist philosophy according to which empty space is fundamental to the true existence of matter, Janine detaches the positive and negative sides creating an extent in between and opening the object to multiple functions. The vessel becomes a portal and together a container of impalpable energy.

“We mold clay into a pot, but it is the emptiness inside that makes the vessel useful.” - Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

In her ​​multidisciplinary and long career, Janine has worked as a designer for many fashion brands including Karl Lagerfeld, and major opera houses across Europe, until she dedicated herself exclusively to sculpture and participatory art in 2000. During the last two decades, she has earned international acclaim and presented her work in museums and institutions, art exhibitions and the Venice Art Biennale. The works exhibited at KALPA have their origin in Eternity, the land art installation in bronze, which premiered at the historical villa La Malcontenta on the occasion of the Biennale di Venezia in 2017. As part of her artistic identity, Janine is an activist and the co-founder of the humanitarian non-profit organisation Beawarenow focussing awareness on human trafficking and gender violence.