CONSTELLATIONS

“Sometimes all it takes is a white dot of a star.”
— Stanislav Kolíbal

Once, people would lift their eyes to the night sky in search of stories. In scattered points of light they recognized hunters, wanderers, dragons, swans, and beings whose names changed over the centuries along with the tales that accompanied them. No paths connected the individual stars, yet people repeatedly drew lines between them. The figures that emerged were not part of the sky itself. They were born in human imagination and endured for as long as there was someone left to tell their story.

Not all constellations are formed in the sky. Some take shape slowly between artworks, objects, and people. Certain points disappear beyond the horizon, while others emerge from the darkness. Some remain close throughout a lifetime, others intersect only for a fleeting moment. Yet the constellation continues to transform in a state beyond time.

Some patterns appear unexpectedly, like messengers from distant lands. Others return after many years. Some shine steadily from the very beginning, while others reveal themselves only briefly. Yet their glow lingers in the sky long after they are gone. Like shooting stars that vanish before we have time to make a wish. Perhaps that is why one can never know what from a life will one day rise among the stars. Which words will endure, which images will return, and which encounters will continue to dwell quietly within us, even though, in the very second of their appearance, they seemed entirely ordinary.

Constellation captures one moment within this ongoing narrative. Here, works separated by decades, differing experiences, and distinct ways of thinking come together. Some have been part of this whole from the very beginning, while others enter it only now. The points may shine from their destined places, yet the imagined lines connecting them remain in constant motion. There are countless ways of seeing them.

The exhibition emerges as one possible configuration. It is shaped by fifteen years of Olga Buchbach Renner’s presence within the gallery world. Only within this constellation do these works meet in a way that could not have come into being at any other time or place.

Indeed, sometimes all it takes is a white dot of a star.